Cognitive health market growth and opportunities

Welcome to the Vitafoods Insights Monthly Thematic Podcast, where each month we highlight a different topic within the nutraceutical industry. Join us as we explore this month theme: cognitive health. Today's host is Natalia Franca Rocha.

Hello and welcome. I'm Natalia Franca Rocha, senior content producer for Vitafoods and your host for this episode. Looking at the brain health supplements market, Grand View Research predicts the market size to grow from USD 7.68 billion at a compound annual growth rate, CAGR, of 8.3% from 2022 to 2030. Some of the highlights and areas of interest in this market include consumers becoming more aware and proactively searching for preventive measures to improve holistic wellbeing, including brain and cognitive functions. This surge in interest is for all demographics, with younger consumers seeking products to optimise their cognitive and mental health. According to Allied Market Research, higher R&D activities around herbal constituents are driving such market growth. On the other hand, predicted increases in ageing populations and prevalence of cognitive disorders also serve as market drivers for consumers looking to optimise health ageing. One of the biggest drivers, perhaps, could be linked to increased anxiety and depressive disorders especially catalysed by the COVID global pandemic. Growing consumer awareness regarding their mental and brain health has led to higher demand for cognition supplements to help with memory, mood, attention and better sleep. This was highlighted back in our Industry Reflections & Predictions series in December 2021, where David Foreman, also known as the Herbal Pharmacist, and Julia Wiebe from red otc shared their thoughts with us and market predictions for 2022:

For 2022 I predict the mental wellness category of stress, sleep and cognitive health to be the boom that we're all looking for and driving our market forward.

Healthy nutrition and supplementation with nutraceuticals have become an increasingly established means to fight stress, anxiety, and maintain wellbeing and immune health. As a result, sales of dietary supplements and especially evidence-based botanicals have experienced unprecedented growth and became another top trends in the last year. It's more than ever we recognise the need to protect our greatest assets: our mental and physical health.

Cognitive health is the Vitafoods Insights thematic topic for July, sponsored by Gencor and Lubrizol. Our sponsors shared with us their insights and opportunities in the cognitive health market space. First, Zakaria Benmerzouga, Global Product Manager for Nutraceutical Ingredients at Lubrizol, talks about consumer behaviour towards their health, specially post-COVID.

COVID-19 has been a transformational event that fundamentally changed the way that consumers address their health, especially as they question aspects of their life that they previously took for granted. More than ever, consumers are looking for holistic solutions that support their physical, mental and emotional wellbeing. The shift in consumers health concerns to a more preventative approach has resulted in a demand for solutions for mental health, including ways to improve sleep, stress, mood, and protect cognitive health for years to come. For example, one in two consumers say that they plan to improve their cognitive health over the next 12 months, reflecting the extent to which people believe that their mental well being and cognitive health could be improved. Therefore, as consumers recognise the immediate and long term importance on good cognitive health, they're looking for nutraceutical products that support their healthy ageing as a lifelong endeavour. However, despite bold moves in nutraceutical innovation, the modern consumers are self educating and becoming more aware about health and ingredients. This is resulting in demand to see supporting science on the cognitive benefits of the products that they buy. Therefore, building trust in nutraceuticals through established and health claim validated ingredients remains necessary to support the growth of nutraceuticals in this space. To meet these consumers demands, Lubrizol provides solutions for cognitive health and mental wellness that include a wide offering of branded mineral and botanical ingredients. Our value added scientifically proven ingredients enable differentiated nutraceutical solutions to support several cognitive functions.

For brands looking to enter or expand their offerings within the cognitive health space, it is essential to account for market trends and consumers' demographics, wishes, wants, and demands. The need for ingredients and products backed by science follows consumers' increased proactiveness towards their health and education. On that note, we heard from Maggie McNamara, Marketing Director at Gencor, who shared more insights about Gencor's Caralluma fimbriata branded extract concerning cognitive health and wellness:

Once thought of as needs day only the old generation look for, cognitive health now encompasses a broader range of ages, all the way from young teens to those in their 60s plus. Now this is because there are four key subcategories in the brain health category, that consumers really look for: focus, cognition, mood, and sleep. No matter the age or the job role, all four of these needs state resonates across all the ages, whether that be in school, the workplace, or even in the gaming space. So, there's no doubt that new ingredients, particularly botanicals are gaining interest in this category, as it continued to align with the broader trends of veganism and naturalness. Now on the topic of naturalness, Gencor's natural extract of Caralluma fimbriata branded CALMaluma™ has been researched for its therapeutic potential in supporting mood in adults. An eight-week double blind randomised placebo-controlled study on 97 patients, in fact showed that CALMaluma™ significantly reduce stress and anxiety, as well as increased positive experience and emotion compared to placebo. What this ultimately means is that CALMaluma™ may help with mood and relaxation on a healthy human population. What's more, is that even an in vivo animal studies showed that CALMaluma™ do support learning and memory function which demonstrates ingredients to have nootropic and anxiolytic activity. So, all in all, Gencor's Caralluma fimbriata extract helps restore the sense of calmness needed for the daily stresses that we all go through and helps rejuvenate the minds.

Holistic health, mental wellness, preventive approach and holistic solutions seem to be vital considerations in addressing consumers' demand to achieve and maintain optimal cognitive health. Thank you to Maggie McNamara and Zakaria Benmerzouga for sharing their insights. And thank you also to Gencor and Lubrizol for their sponsorship. Those looking for more information about the cognitive health space in relation to the nutraceutical industry, keep an eye out for our thematic report coming out on the 28th of July 2022. For other content offerings, please check our Vitafoods Insights website at Vitafoodsinsights.com. For more information, please check the hyperlinks available in the show notes. Thank you.

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