Collagen & NAC - strengthen the immune system
Collagen & NAC - strengthen the immune system
What is NAC (N-acetyl-L-cysteine)?
Cysteine is a conditionally non-essential amino acid. You can find it in protein-rich foods such as beef, chicken, eggs and whole grains.
What makes cysteine conditionally non-essential (essential) is that your body can produce it from two other amino acids: serine and methionine. If your body has low levels of these two amino acids, then a dietary supplement with cysteine (N-acetyl-L-cysteine, NAC) may be necessary.
N-acetyl-L-cysteine (NAC) is the dietary supplement form of cysteine. Your body does not make NAC and N-acetyl-L-cysteine is not found in foods, but it still plays an important role. Like cysteine, NAC binds to glutamine and glycine to form glutathione, a powerful antioxidant. Glutathione performs many functions throughout your body, such as helping to maintain your immune system.
Why is NAC important for the immune system?
NAC is primarily valued for its role in producing the antioxidant glutathione. Along with two other amino acids - glutamine and glycine - NAC is necessary to make glutathione and replenish glutathione.
Glutathione is one of the body's most important antioxidants – antioxidants are compounds that help neutralize free radicals that can damage cells and tissues. Antioxidants help support the body's natural immune system and eliminate toxins. Research also suggests that an intake of antioxidants can reduce the risk of several chronic conditions, including cardiovascular disease.
What is collagen?
Collagen is the most important structural protein that forms connective tissue throughout the body, from skin to bones, muscles, tendons and ligaments.
Collagen therefore has the following advantages (collagen peptides available on the market can come from cattle, fish, chicken or pig):
- Radiant skin with an anti-aging effect on the skin
- Thicker hair that doesn't fall out
- Stronger and healthier nails
- Counteracts joint pain and stiff joints
- Reduced risk of cardiovascular disease (by improving the flexibility of the arteries)
How can collagen improve the immune system?
Although collagen does not directly boost your immune system, it can affect your immune system indirectly in several different ways.
Collagen and disease
In general, a collagen supplement can improve your resistance to infection. Collagen can also heal a leaky gut and prevent foreign substances from entering the bloodstream and causing disease.
How can collagen combat infections?
There are two mechanisms:
Antibodies and collagen for better immune system
Antibodies are proteins used by the immune system to fight certain foreign substances. Antibodies are formed by a type of white blood cell (B cells, or B lymphocytes. B cells are a type of white blood cell). They can form antibodies that fight foreign substances, such as bacteria.
Antibodies are made of protein. This means that collagen supplements (collagen is a protein) give your body the building blocks it needs to produce the antibodies needed to fight disease.
Collagen for the skin can optimize the immune system
You can find all kinds of scary pathogens in the environment. A pathogen is e.g. a parasite, bacterium or virus that can cause disease.
It is, among other things, your skin that protects you against these pathogens. Your skin is your first line of defense against pathogenic microorganisms. The skin is an active "immune organ" equipped with a whole lot of immune cells - just the dermis (the middle of three skin layers) alone contains 12 different types of cells (eg T cells, mast cells and fibroblasts).
What does a T cell do?
T cells are white blood cells that defend the body against disease-causing microorganisms. During a viral infection, certain T cells learn to recognize amino acid sequences on the virus. They become memory T cells that seek out and kill infected cells. If you encounter the virus again, these T cells are activated.
What does a mast cell do?
The mast cell stores in its granules a large amount of pro-inflammatory substances such as histamine, cytokines, tryptase, prostaglandins and more. During various types of stimulation (for example, foreign substances) of the mast cell, these are released, so-called mediator release. The mast cell is involved in the pathogenesis of e.g. allergic conditions. These substances also activate the immune system in the body, but also the inflammation locally or in larger parts of the body and can affect different systems in the body.
What does a fibroblast do?
Fibroblasts are the most common cell in the dermis (also called the dermis, which is the middle layer). It builds up the connective tissue by producing proteins such as collagen. The fibroblasts communicate with other cells, including keratinocytes. These are the cells in the outermost skin layer, the epidermis. Keratinocyte, cell found in all layers of the epidermis (epidermis), which contains keratin . It migrates upwards and undergoes apoptosis in the stratum corneum, i.e. programmed cell death, forming the outer dead cell layer of the body. Its main task is to protect the body against UV radiation, bacteria, viruses and other substances that can be harmful to our organs.
Thus, a dietary supplement with collagen peptides can indirectly boost your immune system by protecting the integrity of the skin's middle layer (dermis) against age-related collagen loss and promoting fibroblast proliferation. Cell proliferation is about the process when a cell divides and becomes two daughter cells. It gives an exponential increase in cells (cells are constantly doubling) and is an effective way to make tissue grow.
Collagen for weight loss can improve the immune system
A large amount of research shows that obesity impairs the immune system.
More specifically, obesity has been shown to cause chronic, low-grade activation of certain parts of the immune system. As a result, the immune system of an obese individual tends to overreact to an infection, making them even sicker.
Take, for example, the largest descriptive study (1) of COVID-19 patients in the United States. It found that 77% of nearly 17,000 patients hospitalized with COVID-19 were overweight (29%) or obese (48%).
If you are overweight, losing weight can be beneficial for your immune system.
A collagen supplement can help you lose weight. That's because it helps you feel fuller for longer, making it more likely that you'll eat fewer calories on a daily basis. In addition, provided you do strength training, it can also help you build muscle mass, which is more metabolically active than fat, simply explained: muscle requires more calories than fat. This means that the more muscle you have, the more calories your body burns every day!
Collagen for gut health can optimize your immune system
You've probably already heard this statistic: 70-80% of your immune system resides in your gut. So improving your gut health could benefit your immune system.
According to a study published in The New England Journal of Medicine, patients with a greater diversity of bacterial species in their gut (the more diverse your gut microbiota/gut flora, the healthier it is) were significantly more likely to survive after a stem cell transplant.
Why is collagen important for the gut?
Collagen contains the amino acid glutamine. This amino acid promotes the regeneration of epithelial cells found in the intestinal mucosa, the "hang-out" place for intestinal microbes. Regeneration is a term in biology that denotes that an organism regenerates lost tissues or entire body parts.
By promoting the health of the gut lining, collagen essentially also improves your gut health - and in turn, your immune system.
Collagen for autoimmune diseases
Sometimes the immune system can mistakenly attack healthy body parts. This is exactly what happens in autoimmune diseases. Examples of autoimmune diseases are e.g.:
Rheumatoid arthritis is an autoimmune condition, meaning it is caused by the immune system attacking healthy body tissue. However, it is not yet known what triggers this. Your immune system normally makes antibodies that attack bacteria and viruses and help fight infections. If you have rheumatoid arthritis, your immune system mistakenly sends antibodies to the lining of your joints, where they attack the tissue surrounding the joint. This causes the thin layer of cells (synovium) covering your joints to become tender, swollen and inflamed (leading to pain), releasing substances that damage everything around the joint such as:
- bone
- cartilage – the stretchy connective tissue between bones
- tendons – the tissue that connects bones to muscles
- ligaments – the tissue that connects bones and cartilage
If rheumatoid arthritis is not treated, these substances gradually cause the joint to lose its shape. Eventually, it can destroy the joint completely.
Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD): The immune system attacks the lining of the intestines, causing unpleasant and sometimes downright painful symptoms such as diarrhea, rectal bleeding, increased bowel movements and fever.
Multiple Sclerosis (MS): The immune system attacks nerve cells, causing symptoms such as pain, blindness, weakness, poor coordination and muscle spasms.
While the exact cause of autoimmune diseases is still unknown, researchers believe that persistent and long-term inflammation may play a major role.
In addition to promoting gut health (which lowers inflammation), collagen also contains glycine, an amino acid with proven anti-inflammatory effects. So by supplementing with hydrolyzed collagen peptides, inflammation levels in the body can be lowered - and potentially prevent and/or alleviate various symptoms associated with autoimmune diseases.
In summary
Your immune system keeps you healthy.
Supplementing your diet with premium quality collagen peptides can benefit your immune system - and therefore health - by:
- Improves your resistance to infections. Collagen provides your body with the necessary building blocks to produce antibodies and protects the integrity of your skin
- Helps you maintain a healthy weight
- Promotes intestinal health
- Lowers inflammation levels
Our collagen supplement COLLAGEN IMMUNE SUPPORT is the optimal dietary supplement based on collagen peptides together with other ingredients that work synergistically with collagen to optimize the immune system. In addition to collagen peptides, COLLAGEN IMMUNE SUPPORT also contains NAC (N-acetyl-L-cysteine), vitamin C, zinc, vitamin B6 (pyridoxine), folic acid (vitamin B9), selenium, vitamin D, and vitamin B12 (cobalamin).