SAVE YOUR SKIN
BETTER LIVING THROUGH SCIENCE
Can collagen supplements really achieve the age-defying benefits they claim?
ILLUSTRATION: KYLE SMART
by IAN TAYLOR Ian is a freelance science writer and the former deputy editor of BBC Science Focus.
Take this from a haggard, middle-aged father of two young, energetic children: it would be great to look young again.
Beneath my skin, a process as old as time – atrophy, decay, disrepair – is well under way. Collagen, sometimes described as the body’s main structural protein, is breaking down and my cells aren’t replacing it like they used to. Elastin too, arubbery protein that allows our skin and other organs to stretch and rebound, is not what it used to be.