Supplements in the bone, muscle and joint category have comprised an essential sector of the industry for years, and manufacturers are continuing to innovate these products.
The Proclaimers sang that they “would walk 500 miles” (followed by 500 more). But it raises the question: did they suffer from any type of joint pain?
We may never know for sure.
However, one fact that’s definite is the prevalence of bone, muscle and joint health issues—according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), about one in four adults (15 million people) have reported feeling severe joint pain related to arthritis, which is pain rated as a seven or higher on a scale of one to 10 (0 being no pain and 10 being the worst).
Further, out of the adults with arthritis, nearly half of them have reported persistent pain—pain of any severity that occurs on most or all days in the past three months.
Whether one is looking for supplements that address maintenance or improvement, manufacturers continue to offer products that meet consumers’ bone, muscle and joint needs.
The Latest Trends
Calcium, vitamins D and K2 and collagen are undergoing transformations in this category.
“Consumers are shifting from ‘traditional’ sources of calcium to algae and greens sources,” noted Bill Ayzin, owner/president, Wealth of Health Natural Market (Idaho). “Vitamin K2 and collagen have become very popular, and consumers are shifting to higher doses of D3 from the original 400-1000 IU to 5,000-10,000 IU/day.”
There’s also been an increased interest in products capable of generating and protecting collagen, such as BioSil, added Richard Passwater, Jr., product education director for Bio Minerals, the maker of BioSil, a specialty line from Washington-based Natural Factors. “Cartilage (about 70 percent collagen), tendons (about 80-90 percent collagen), ligaments (generally 70-90 percent collagen), bones (about 30 percent collagen), muscles (2-20 percent collagen) and nerves, and even the blood vessels bringing nutrients to these tissues (about 40 percent collagen and elastin) are all dependent on the quality and quantity of collagen they contain.
“Collagen is a strong fibrous that pound-for-pound is stronger than steel but much more flexible,” he added. “Collagen forms the frameworks of all these tissues and gives them their unique strength and flexibility properties. And in bone, collagen fibers also serve as a template, or the ‘binding sites’ or ‘parking spaces,’ for bone minerals such as calcium and phosphorous. Cartilage, tendons, ligaments and bones are constantly going through stages of degradation, synthesis and remodeling throughout someone’s life. In cartilage, tendons and ligaments, enzymes created by chondrocytes, tenocytes and fibroblasts respectively tear down older damaged tissue. Then, these cells generate new collagen and glycosaminoglycans to remodel the tissues. In bone, osteoclasts tear down the older bone and osteoblasts build new bone by first making a bone collagen framework called osteoid. … “As the importance of collagen in overall bone quality is becoming clearer, there is an increasing trend to study how these common collagen destroyers are impacting bone health. And more importantly, how neutralizing these collagen destroyers or at least trying to limit their impact can positively impact bone quality and quality of life.” CBD, which among its plethora of functions can help address pain and inflammation, is also making strides in this category.
“ … With regard to relief from pain and inflammation due to physical overexertion, the biggest trend is all about CBD,” said Gene Bruno, MS, MHS, RH(AHG), senior director of product innovation with Florida-based Twinlab. “The popularity of CBD in general certainly helps to address a reason for the focus, but the specific research regarding pain/inflammation and CBD has really pushed the market in this direction.”
Delivery Formats
Illinois-based Redd Remedies, which offers its Joint Health product in soft chew form, noted that trends in this category revolve around both delivery method and consumer convenience.
“Trends in bone, muscle and joint health products follow those of other categories: delivery formats and improvements to ease of use for the consumer,” explained Dan Chapman, the company’s founder and CEO. “Many consumers suffer with ‘pill fatigue,’ and alternatives to traditional capsules and tablets are an attractive option for many individuals. NEM Natural Eggshell Membrane for joint health continues to gain popularity in the joint health category. We feel this is due to its low dose of 500 mg, taken just once daily; furthermore, unlike glucosamine/chondroitin, NEM Natural Eggshell Membrane can provide improvements in as little as four to 10 days. Redd Remedies offers NEM in both a one-a-day capsule, as well as a one-a-day black cherry flavored soft chew.”
Passwater, Jr. was in agreement—even compared to a decade ago, pill fatigue has developed into a major issue and as a result, consumers are shifting their attention toward other consumption methods, such as liquid supplements, he noted.
“ … Anecdotal evidence I hear when interacting with the public strongly suggests that the modern consumer is less willing to take pills and is extremely less willing to take larger sized pills compared to consumers 10 or 15 years ago,” Passwater, Jr. said. “It seems some people have developed ‘pill fatigue’ over the years, while others flat out have problems swallowing pills. The large dosage of many nutrients required to positively impact musculoskeletal healthy often can create challenges creating pill-based formulations.
“There also seems to be an increasing number of consumers believing that liquid supplements are better absorbed then solid dosage forms,” he added. “We’ve seen a resurgence of sales of our concentrated BioSil liquid drops for these reasons.”
Powdered products, which can help with absorption, add to consumer selections.
“I believe powdered dietary supplements are the delivery system of choice and are of growing popularity in the categories of muscle and joint supplements,” said Mark Timon, MS, consultant to Vibrant Health (Connecticut), which offers Joint Vibrance, a product offering 10,600 mg collagen. “Bone health can still be adequately delivered through tablets, but the sheer bulk of nutritive ingredients required to fully support muscle and joint health requires that they are best delivered in powder form.”
A Growing Market
New ingredients for this category are being aided by research studies.
“Research in bone, muscle and joint health is evolving. Much of the modern research is now including a broader spectrum of nutrients than traditionally researched in the past,” Passwater, Jr. pointed out. “It appears to me that sales of dietary supplement products are following along this same trajectory. Some of these nutrients now being proven beneficial for musculoskeletal system health haven’t historically been viewed as being ‘bone and joint products,’ per se. These nutrients are now being used to support musculoskeletal health, but the sales of these nutrients often aren’t getting properly included in musculoskeletal system related market reports. Also, I certainly see some products and subcategories of products growing very dynamically. As an example, magnesium, vitamin K2, collagen and collagen generating products such as BioSil are becoming increasing popular for bone, joint and muscle health applications. “In my opinion, the musculoskeletal supplement market is driven primarily by three sets of people: 1) those wishing to stay active as they age, 2) those managing ‘side effects’ of physical activity either from wear and tear or injury and 3) those desiring to proactively improve their athletic or physical abilities.”
Although, Timon noted some skepticism. “Dietary supplements targeted for bone, muscle and joint health remain ubiquitous in the marketplace,” he said. “That the market for them remains strong is somewhat baffling because the majority of products offered are incompletely formulated, with ingredient potencies that often prove inadequate to sustain or restore tissue health.”
Hunting for Research
Each manufacturer has its preferences when formulating products, but Vibrant Health seeks research that supports ways to achieve the most out of what the bones, muscles and joints have to offer.
“I cannot speak for other marketing companies and ingredient manufacturers,” Timon noted. “I gravitate toward research that pinpoints the latest discoveries deep within the biochemistry of bone, muscle and joint tissues. The goal is to discover not only what those functions are, but also how dietary supplements can guide the biochemistry toward optimal function.”
Redd Remedies divides the bone, muscle and joint segment into distinct categories, providing retailers and consumers with new knowledge along the way.
“As it pertains to bone health,” Chapman explained, “we are looking for research focused on co-factors and other micronutrients that impact bone development and remodeling in a research environment dominated by calcium. We feel people are well aware of the needs of calcium for bones; however, people may not be as aware of the needs of co-factors, such as vitamin K2 and boron. In regard to joint health, our research interest remains on easy-to-use, low-dose ingredients, such as natural eggshell membrane (NEM). This ingredient provides a great alternative to the traditional high-dose glucosamine/chondroitin products, and the most current human research is confirming NEM’s beneficial impacts on joint health across a wide sample of different populations.”
Twinlab’s focus has centered on the particulars of pain and inflammation in regard to sports nutrition, but the company also has touched on probiotics, as well as CBD.
“Twinlab’s interest in this category has been specific for nutraceuticals that help relieve pain and inflammation associated with overexertion such as over exercising. Furthermore, while our goal has been to combine such evidence-based nutraceuticals into a single formula, our formulation strategy involved choosing nutraceuticals with different mechanism of action to avoid redundancy and maximize effectiveness,” Bruno said. “Consequently, we’ve been most focused on the following nutraceuticals with human clinical research demonstrating a reduction in occasional inflammation and pain caused by physical overexertion: 1) specific B. Breve and S. thermophilus probiotic strains;1 2) Boswellia serrata extract;2 and 3) CBD.”3,4
Support for a holistic approach to bone, muscle and joint health is growing.
“In my opinion, musculoskeletal system research is becoming more interrelated,” Passwater, Jr. expressed. “Historically, bone, muscle and joint research communities were separate and distinct groups. But now, when I attend conferences specializing in one discipline, I see much more discussion and research investigating the relationships between these tissues and how the condition of one impacts the others. As an example, a joint is a functional unit of the neuromuscular skeletal system. The functional unit is composed of articulating bones, cartilage, tendons, ligaments, the synovial capsule, synovial fluid, the muscles that effect movement and the nerves that control movement. Accurate, controlled movement relies on each of these components working correctly. If any component is dysfunctional, the joint will be dysfunctional.”
He continued, “I believe there is a clear evolution within musculoskeletal system research communities towards studying the joint functional unit as a whole instead of different researchers focusing on different joint components. And also, toward trying to understand the relationships between the various components in the joint.”
The standard solutions, though effective, have grown to include other possibilities, too.
“Much of joint research previously focused on glucosamine, while muscle research was all about protein and creatine,” Bruno concluded. “While these types of nutraceuticals do have value, when it comes to relief from pain and inflammation due to physical overexertion, research has evolved to examine other nutraceuticals with more direct effects. The value of this is that such research validates a more experiential effect, which is what consumers want.” VR
References
1. Jäger R, Purpura M, Stone JD, Turner SM, Anzalone AJ, Eimerbrink MJ, Pane M, Amoruso A, Rowlands DS, Oliver JM. Probiotic Streptococcus thermophilus FP4 and Bifidobacterium breve BR03 Supplementation Attenuates Performance and Range-of-Motion Decrements Following Muscle Damaging Exercise. Nutrients. 2016 Oct 14;8(10). pii: E642.
2. Sengupta K, Krishnaraju AV, Vishal AA, Mishra A, Trimurtulu G, Sarma KV, Raychaudhuri SK, Raychaudhuri SP. Comparative efficacy and tolerability of 5-Loxin and Aflapin against osteoarthritis of the knee: a double blind, randomized, placebo controlled clinical study. Int J Med Sci. 2010 Nov 1;7(6):366-77.
3. Jadoon KA, Ratcliffe SH, Barrett DA, Thomas EL, Stott C, Bell JD, O’Sullivan SE, Tan GD. Efficacy and Safety of Cannabidiol and Tetrahydrocannabivarin on Glycemic and Lipid Parameters in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Parallel Group Pilot Study. Diabetes Care. 2016 Oct;39(10):1777-86.
4. Cuñetti L, Manzo L, Peyraube R, Arnaiz J, Curi L, Orihuela S. Chronic Pain Treatment With Cannabidiol in Kidney Transplant Patients in Uruguay. Transplant Proc. 2018 Mar;50(2):461-464.
For More Information:
› Natural Factors., www.naturalfactors.com, www.biosilusa.com
› Redd Remedies, www.reddremedies.com
› Twinlab, https://twinlab.tlcchealth.com
› Vibrant Health, www.vibranthealth.com
