When you were younger, you likely didn’t give much thought to collagen, but its role in the health of your skin becomes increasingly apparent when you start to age and lose production of this critical protein. When this occurs, your skin begins to sag and wrinkle, making finding a way to boost collagen production again a great solution for aging skin.
One of these solutions can be found in cosmetic acupuncture, a service that the team here at Family Wellness Acupuncture offers. To understand how acupuncture can breathe new life into aging skin, we’re going to take a closer look at collagen in this month’s blog post and how acupuncture encourages more production of this incredibly valuable protein.
Collagen is the most plentiful protein in your body, and it’s responsible for the structure and tone in all of your tissues — inside and out. In fact, it’s no exaggeration to say that collagen holds your body together as it provides the scaffolding upon which all of your tissues build and find strength.
This structural support occurs throughout your body, but it’s especially abundant in certain areas, such as your connective tissues, your bones, and your body’s largest organ — your skin.
You enjoy the most collagen in your teens and early 20s, at which point your production begins to decrease. This loss occurs slowly, at first, at about 1% a year, but, with each passing year, the deficit can begin to add up, and you notice your skin begin to wrinkle and sag.
At the same time your natural production of collagen wanes, the existing collagen support in your skin can begin to break down, especially if your skin is exposed to the sun’s ultraviolet (UV) rays. This type of UV light can prematurely break down collagen fibers, accelerating the aging processes in your skin as your declining collagen production is unable to keep up with the damage.
As we mentioned, one of the most effective ways to combat aging skin is to create a call for collagen, which is exactly what acupuncture accomplishes. When we insert the fine needles into your skin, it elicits a collagen response in your tissue.
Though creating a call for collagen is important, acupuncture goes a step further by unblocking the natural flow of resources to your skin. These resources fight inflammation and deliver the oxygen and nutrients your skin needs to glow with good health.
This technique is so effective that many of our clients make cosmetic acupuncture a regular part of their beauty regimen. In most cases, we recommend that clients undergo an initial series of 10-12 acupuncture sessions and then periodic maintenance sessions afterward to keep the collagen and other resources in their skin flowing.
If you’d like to see for yourself how acupuncture can help restore youth and vitality to your skin by tapping into collagen, contact our office Irvine, California, to set up your cosmetic acupuncture appointment.
