Collagen

The primary mechanism of collagen loss is the continuous elimination of toxins through the skin. Aajonus stated that approximately 90 percent of all poisons leave the body through the skin. As those toxins pass through and are deposited in connective tissue by an overloaded lymphatic system, they damage and dissolve the collagen matrix. When the lymphatic system becomes congested and cannot move waste efficiently out of the body, it dumps that waste into the connective tissue beneath the skin, where it accumulates. This accumulated waste dissolves collagen, thins connective tissue, and in severe cases produces the conditions Aajonus identified as lupus (dissolution of connective tissue) and MS (hardening of the nerves).

Vegetable oils, margarine, and the hydrogenated fats present in virtually all processed foods contribute heavily to collagen precursor problems. Aajonus described these substances as crystallizing in the body over years because the human body temperature of 98.6 degrees or lower is insufficient to keep vegetable oils liquid, whereas the bodies of animals that produce those oils run at higher temperatures. When a vegetable oil molecule is incorporated into a cell and that cell lives out its five-to-seven year lifespan, it leaves behind a crystal form that ruptures the cell and creates scar tissue throughout the body, including in tendons, bones, and bone marrow. This contributes to arthritis, rheumatism, and osteoporosis, all conditions related to the degradation of structural tissue that collagen helps maintain.

Cooked food, broadly, prevents collagen replacement because heat destroys the collagen precursors in fruits and vegetables and denatures the collagen-bearing proteins in animal foods. Aajonus was direct on this point: "When you cook food, it damages the collagen. You really don't replace the collagen."

Because 90 percent of toxins exit through the skin, the skin and its underlying connective tissue are in a constant state of collagen depletion in anyone carrying a significant toxic load. Even people eating correctly on the Primal Diet who eat fruit only once a day, as Aajonus recommended, do not get enough collagen precursors from that single fruit meal to offset the damage being done to the skin by the ongoing outflow of poisons. Aajonus observed this pattern in a subset of long-term Primal Diet followers, approximately 6 to 7 percent of those who had been on the diet for extended periods without doing regular hot baths. In these individuals, the skin became increasingly damaged, the connective tissue was being dissolved faster than it could be replaced, and some were developing symptoms pointing toward lupus or MS.

He identified two actual cases of lupus or MS developing on the diet, and he attributed both to this mechanism: the waste deposited under the skin from a congested lymphatic system was dissolving the connective tissue faster than the person's diet was replacing the collagen. The hot baths, had they been done consistently, would have resolved the problem by moving the waste out through perspiration before it could accumulate in the connective tissue. But without both the hot baths and the collagen precursor supply from cucumber, the connective tissue degraded.

The central discovery Aajonus made regarding collagen replacement was that cucumber pulp is the richest and most practical dietary source of collagen precursors available to people on the Primal Diet. Cucumber is botanically a fruit, which means its cellular structure is simpler and more digestible than leafy vegetables or stalks, and crucially it contains collagen precursors in very low-carbohydrate form. Because the Primal Diet limits fruit to one meal per day due to sugar content, cucumber fills the collagen precursor need without the destabilizing effects of high-sugar fruits.

The critical point Aajonus made repeatedly about cucumber is that the collagen precursors are located in the pulp, not in the juice. When cucumber is juiced through a standard juicing process, the pulp is separated out and discarded, and the collagen precursors go with it. This is why he changed his recommendation from juicing cucumber to pureeing it and blending the puree into the juice. The juice of the cucumber does not carry adequate collagen precursors. The pulp must be included.

Aajonus's revised preparation method was to peel the cucumber (whether organic or not, because the peel is too tough for most people's digestive systems to utilize when consumed whole, though the peel does contain some vitamin D and vitamin E that will leach into the juice), slice it, place it in a jar, and pour the freshly juiced celery, carrot, parsley, cilantro, beet, or whatever other vegetables are being juiced directly onto the cucumber slices in the jar, then blend the entire mixture together. This results in a juice with the cucumber fiber and pulp thoroughly incorporated.

He noted that the peel, while containing vitamin D and vitamin E, also has a relaxing effect on male sexual function in some men, specifically making the penis very relaxed, so men who experience difficulty achieving erection may want to peel the cucumber and not include the peel in their preparation.

Aajonus investigated whether cucumber could supply collagen precursors through topical application as well as internal consumption, noting that spas have historically used cucumber slices and masks on the skin. His conclusion was that topical cucumber application does not deliver the collagen precursors effectively because those precursors are located in the pulp and the body can only absorb juices through the skin, not pulp. The effect of topical cucumber application is therefore temporary and does not persist in the way that internal consumption does.

He was also cautious about trying to evaluate topical and internal effects simultaneously, noting that anyone who wanted to experiment with topical cucumber would need to do it exclusively, without also consuming cucumber internally, in order to distinguish the effects clearly.

Beyond cucumber, Aajonus identified several other foods that supply collagen precursors, with the caveat that most of them come with higher carbohydrate content that limits their use.

Unripe fruit was one alternative. He specified eating green oranges, green pears, and unripe melon, with watermelon eaten so unripe that it is pink rather than red, containing very little sugar. The rationale is that unripe fruit has not yet converted its collagen precursors into the sugars that develop as the fruit ripens, so eating it early preserves the precursor content while keeping carbohydrates low.

Watermelon, whether unripe or in its pink-fleshed state, also contains collagen precursors to help replace collagen under the skin. Additionally, watermelon contains citrulline, which Aajonus described as functioning like a natural Viagra, with the rind being particularly concentrated in this compound, making it useful for people with libido issues. Watermelon is also the best food for creating perspiration, which is central to moving toxins out of the skin so they do not accumulate in connective tissue and dissolve collagen.

Ripe fruit eaten raw carries collagen precursors that the body can use to manufacture collagen, but the sugar content makes it impractical to consume in the quantities needed to offset skin-level collagen depletion on a daily basis.

Bone marrow is high in collagen and, when eaten cooked, still delivers some collagen directly, though the quality, variety, and structural form are not as good as what the body can produce from raw precursors. Certain bones are also high in collagen. Skin from animals is a collagen-rich food that, even when cooked, delivers usable collagen to the body.

Regarding gelatin and collagen supplements or processed forms, Aajonus gave a specific protocol for obtaining their benefits on the Primal Diet: grate bone and cartilage and let it soak for a week in liquid, fresh whey (the remainder of this instruction is truncated in the source). This is distinct from commercial gelatin or collagen powders, which are processed products.

The Sport Formula, which Aajonus developed for athletes and anyone with high physical demands or high toxic loads, incorporates cucumber as one of its core components specifically because of its collagen precursor content. The basic formula he described consists of approximately one-third cucumber puree, one-third carrot juice, one-third celery juice, and 10 percent parsley. He also offered a version using tomato and cucumber puree blended together with lemon juice and water.

For a fuller sport drink, the base is typically around a quart of fluid made from three cups of liquid components, which can include cucumber puree, tomato puree, watermelon puree, fresh liquid whey, and milk in any combination, using at least two of those ingredients. Champion tennis players he worked with used a mix of one to one and a half cups of tomato with two cups of cucumber puree.

The cucumber puree in this formula also significantly cuts thirst, which Aajonus identified as an advantage for athletes who might otherwise overconsume water, which he considered problematic because water fractionates minerals and nutrients in the body.

When collagen is not adequately replaced and toxic waste is being deposited into connective tissue by a congested lymphatic system, two specific diseases become possible: lupus, which Aajonus defined as the dissolution of connective tissue, and MS, which he described as hardening of the nerves. He considered both among the most difficult diseases he worked with, ranking them alongside lung cancer in terms of the challenge they presented. He reported having reversed most cases of lupus and MS that he worked with, but emphasized that prevention through consistent hot baths and adequate collagen precursor intake was far preferable.

The mechanism he described is that the lymphatic system, when overloaded, dumps toxic waste beneath the skin into the connective tissue to be perspired out. If perspiration is blocked, if the lymphatic system is congested, or if the skin's ability to perspire is compromised by accumulated plastic molecules from hydrogenated fats and other industrial compounds, the waste stays trapped in the connective tissue. There it attacks and dissolves the collagen matrix. This is why the hot baths are inseparable from the collagen replacement protocol in his framework: without the hot baths moving the toxic load out of the connective tissue, no amount of collagen precursor intake can fully offset the damage.

Aajonus said explicitly that he did not recognize the collagen precursor problem until after his books were published, meaning that the information connecting hot baths to collagen preservation is available only in his workshop and seminar materials, not in the books.

The relevant bath protocols he described in connection with collagen and connective tissue protection are as follows. For daily connective tissue baths (which he distinguished from the longer lymphatic baths), the recommendation is 35 to 40 minute baths per day at 105 to 108 degrees Fahrenheit. This temperature range is sufficient to melt and perspire out the waste products that accumulate in connective tissue, reducing the rate of collagen damage. He specified that getting this waste out through perspiration means the body does not need to store as much fat and water in the connective tissue to buffer the toxins.

For people whose lymphatic system is congested (rather than simply having connective tissue-level accumulation), the protocol is different: one hour to one and a half hour baths, two days per week, at 102 to 105 degrees Fahrenheit, using the lymphatic bath recipe from his book We Want to Live, which includes pineapple, coconut cream, and dairy cream or butter consumed before entering the bath. This recipe is used only for the longer lymphatic baths, not for the shorter daily connective tissue baths.

He also cautioned that people should have at least ten to fifteen pounds of body fat before undertaking the hot baths, because the heat draws industrial toxins through the fat layer and into the connective tissue during the bath, and without adequate fat in the tissue, the connective tissue itself is exposed to the concentrated toxins and can be damaged. If a person does not have that buffer of fat, they risk the very connective tissue degradation the baths are intended to prevent.

Elderly people, Aajonus observed, develop the characteristic skin looseness and sagging of old age because they have lost collagen. When he described pulling the skin of an elderly person, he noted that "there's nothing connected, it just pulls away because the collagen's damaged." He contrasted this with his own condition at age 62, where he reported good skin integrity and connection because he had consistently consumed enough collagen precursors to replace what was being depleted.

He attributed this to the cucumber pulp protocol and, when tired of cucumber, to unripe fruits as alternatives. The wrinkle-reducing effects he described were significant. He noted that his own facial creases, which had been deep since childhood and had deepened further over the years, were diminishing more quickly once he added collagen precursors from cucumber to his diet. He distinguished this from cosmetic collagen injection, which he described as producing a bloated appearance (referencing William Shatner as an example), with the bloated look potentially lasting up to a year and a half after injection.

Aajonus worked with directors and movie stars who asked for alternatives to cosmetic collagen injections, and this was one of the contexts in which he began investigating cucumber as a collagen precursor source. His objection to injected collagen was practical as well as philosophical: the injections produce a bloated, overfilled appearance for an extended period, with the results not looking natural. The natural route of providing collagen precursors through cucumber pulp allowed the body to produce its own collagen in the right quantities and locations, resulting in skin that looks naturally healthy rather than artificially augmented.

His own results with cucumber pulp, doing it only two or sometimes three days per week rather than daily (as he noted other people who needed it more urgently were doing it daily with all their juices), showed visible reduction in deep facial lines over that period.

The distinction between raw and cooked foods is fundamental to the collagen replacement question in Aajonus's framework. Raw collagen precursors in fruits, when consumed raw, allow the body to synthesize collagen. When those same foods are cooked, the body cannot use them as collagen precursors. For animal-based collagen sources like skin, certain bones, and bone marrow, cooking destroys the highest quality forms of collagen and degrades the variety and structural quality of what remains, but some collagen does survive cooking in these tissues because they are dense collagen-based structures. However, Aajonus consistently regarded the raw forms as superior and the cooked forms as providing collagen only in reduced quality.

The principle he stated was: "As long as you're eating things raw, then collagen precursors, the body will make collagen from them. If they're cooked, your body's not going to make collagen from anything other than collagen-based foods like skin." Even those collagen-based foods eaten cooked deliver "not the greatest variety or the shape and form or quality."

Aajonus referenced bone marrow several times in relation to collagen and skin health. Bone marrow is high in collagen and serves both as an internal food and as a topical skin treatment. He described letting bone marrow come to room temperature over approximately eight hours so it reaches a soft, butter-like consistency that can be rubbed into the skin.

In his own use, he applied bone marrow or sperm topically to deep facial lines during a period when he was not yet using cucumber pulp internally for himself (though he was recommending it to others). He reported that over a five-month period of topical application alone, this "mitigated the deepest of my wrinkles and thinned my skin," which had been very thick on his forehead. He was clear that he was testing these approaches separately rather than in combination, in order to evaluate their individual effects.

The full preparation method Aajonus described involves the following steps. Peel the cucumber, even if it is organic, because the peel is too fibrous for adequate digestion when consumed in blended form (though the peel can contribute its vitamin D and vitamin E to the juice if it is juiced alongside the other vegetables before blending). Slice the peeled cucumber and place the slices in a blending jar. Juice all other vegetables separately through a standard juicer, collecting the juice. Pour that juice over the cucumber slices in the blending jar. Blend the entire mixture together until the cucumber pulp is thoroughly incorporated into the liquid. The result is a juice that contains all the collagen precursors from the cucumber pulp suspended throughout.

Because the pulp is not evenly distributed once the mixture sits, Aajonus recommended dividing the blended mixture evenly across however many portions are being prepared for the day, stirring or shaking each portion before drinking to redistribute the settled pulp. If making a full day's worth at once, it should be divided into equal portions immediately so that each serving contains an even amount of the cucumber pulp.

He suggested a basic composition of approximately 30 to 35 percent cucumber puree, 20 percent carrot, 25 percent celery, 10 percent parsley, and 5 percent cilantro, with the cilantro serving the additional function of helping remove heavy metals from the body. He also noted this formula could be adapted with other vegetables based on individual needs.

Aajonus described connective tissue as the system that "keeps everything together in a fluid-connected living form so we can be a machine, a biological machine," and identified collagen as the primary structural component of that system. The connective tissue connects the bloodstream and all fluid systems to muscles, skin, and bones. Cartilage, which buffers joint impact, depends on collagen for its structure, needing to be "not hardened and brittle and not swollen with toxicity" to function correctly. Tendons connecting muscles to bones and ligaments holding bones together are also collagen-dependent structures.

When the collagen matrix in any of these tissues is compromised, the consequences cascade through the entire structural system. The degeneration of connective tissue leads to the loss of the body's ability to hold itself together in proper form, manifesting as loose skin, degraded joints, and in the most severe cases, the systemic tissue dissolution of lupus or the nerve hardening of MS.

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