Long Live Us All

by Lisa Schofield | March 1, 2022

A new year means we are all older—but for those in their 40s and above, this means maintaining, if not improving, health to kick “age” to the curb. And this is how you can help lead the new age-evolution.

The recent passing of television legend Betty White at age 99, a scant three weeks ahead of her 100th birthday, shone a light on healthy aging. After all, she was spry and joyous, and her sudden death at age 99 from “natural causes” in her sleep was the epitome of “healthy aging.” She didn’t live to see her centennial birthday—but she truly lived her 99 years of life.

White, born in 1922, entered the world when the average life expectancy in the U.S. was 54 years, according to Seniorliving.org.

Today’s 54-year-old is gearing up for a new marathon, a new business, a new spouse, a new calling. For supplement formulators, this brings a new spin on supplements and natural products to empower the generation of experienced (not older) adults.

The upper tier of age of supplement/natural products buyers are primarily both Baby Boomers and Generation X. Millennials, born between 1981-1997, are now young to middle-age and are primed to care about supporting their aging.

For Boomer consumers, Rick Kozlenko PhD, DPM, MPH, science and functional food advisor, GCI Nutrients Inc., California, explained that the primary concerns are “protecting and enhancing health, bringing value, independence and more life fulfillment in our remaining years, [as well as our] quest to be active, intellectually and cognitively alert, imbue the creative element in our lives, enhance curiosity, self-empowerment and physical vitality.”

This consumer is already highly knowledgeable about the link between dietary supplementation and health. And it’s not just about being confined to withering away in a wheelchair, according to Angie Rimel, marketing communications manager, GELITA USA, Iowa. “Youthful looks are the classic concern but mobility and staying physically active is a close second,” she stated.

Kristen Marshall, digital marketing manager, Indiana-based Verdure Sciences, observed that growing interest in healthy aging includes immune support, brain and cognitive health, joint and sports nutrition, women’s health and beauty-from-within, for example. But, she noted, healthy aging is not just an umbrella term that will work to garner new consumers for your brand or product—you need to be a bit more specific. Each category of healthy aging has seen growth in more specific sub-categories. For example, brain and cognitive health has seen substantial growth in forms of mood, emotional stability, focus, alertness, concentration, mental fatigue and sleep.

The ongoing pandemic has expanded the health-concern horizons for middle-aged and older individuals who are relatively healthy—and want to remain so.

Liki Von Oppen-Bezalel, PhD, business development director, TriNutra, Ness Ziona, Israel, observed, “The last two years have made consumers think more often about the importance of aging well, especially as senior populations have been in a higher risk category during the pandemic. While healthy aging still has strong implications around skin health, it also means increased vitality and energy, improved metabolism and cognition, and reduced stress.”

For consumers, she exemplified, this means to lump the concept into overall wellbeing, which to many starts with immune health and resilience. “Consumers are looking for healthy aging solutions that help give confidence of a better life,” she stated. “First, this entails a desire for a longer life to enjoy in an active and fulfilling way. This is combined with consumers wanting to potentially boost resistance to risk factors, helping make life more comfortable and joyful.”

Maggie McNamara, marketing director, Gencor Pacific (Austin, TX), cited that on average, a 65-year-old can expect to live another 19 years (20.8 years for women and 18.2 years for men, Kochanek et al 2017). People age 65-plus represented 16 percent of the population in 2019, expected to grow substantially to 21.6 percent by 2040, according to data supplied by the Administration for Community Living/U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

“For most older adults,” McNamara commented, “good health ensures independence, security and productivity as they age. Unfortunately, millions struggle every day with challenges such as chronic diseases, falls, physical inactivity, oral health concerns and behavioral health issues—all of which can severely impact quality of life. She added that many older Americans have at least one chronic condition, and many have multiple conditions.

In 2019, she cited, 22.3 percent of those 65 to 74 assessed their health as fair or poor as compared to 29.3 percent of the population age 75 and over. A population is defined by the UN and the World Health Organization (WHO) as “aging” when 7 percent of the population is older than 65. It is defined as “aged” when the share is greater than 14 percent, and “super-aged” when the share is more than 20 percent.

Kozlenko pointed out, “There are tremendous individual and health variations not always dictated by chronological age—for example, someone in his/her mid-80s who still mountain bikes versus someone in his/her 60s who is debilitated.”

Age, then, to a large extent, is indeed only a number.

Rimel mused, “I believe it is important to understand when aging begins. The first sign of aging shows in the skin around age 30 as collagen metabolism slows down. However, aging is a gradual process, so what consumers do in their 20s and 30s will affect how they age in their 40s and 50s. The work done in their 50s will pay off in their 70s.”

Marshall observed, “We have seen this category appeal to an aging audience that is aiming to stay healthy and proactive, as well as for skin and personal care products, and for targeting specific areas of the body such as healthy joints, eyes/vision, heart, etc.”

When formulating, keep in mind that the term “anti-aging” is, well, aged. While it was a magnet 20 years ago, it is perceived as stale and untrustworthy now. Said Von Oppen-Bezalel, “Having made a more concerted effort as an industry to shift from calling the category ‘anti-aging’ to ‘healthy aging,’ I think there is greater clarity among consumers about what this entails. Concepts of anti-aging, living longer and keeping a youthful appearance, have been upgraded to focusing on how better health can influence those concepts for better results. It’s no longer about superficial efforts, but long-term proactive activity.”

She added that healthy aging is not “the fountain of youth where a single drink promises eternal beauty and forever avoiding the effects of age. Rather, it’s a result of years of proper diets, exercise, mental activity and nutritional supplementation to bolster the body’s various functions that keep a person feeling and acting younger than their years.”

Brands should therefore formulate to this ideal with science to support it than promise “anti-aging” benefits that just don’t exist.

Targeting Aging Acceleration

Aging shows itself to the outside world in many ways: not just wrinkling and sagging of the facial and body skin, but in loss of energy, muscularity and flexibility. Overall, the human organism slows down in cellular replication, and therefore loses integrity of structure and function.

Consumers expect dietary supplements to help them slow down the physiological aging process so they can enjoy every spark that life hands them. But “healthy aging” supplements are still a moving target. Consumers wonder if, by their very nature of supporting health, every supplement is indeed a healthy aging supplement. Well, yes, to an extent.

Healthy aging supplements tend to be those that replace what aging does not replenish through a variety of pathways.

Explained Kozlenko, “There is a panorama of various theories from oxidative stress and telomere shortening, but most likely, it is multisystem, and uneven decompensation of key physiological, endocrine, microbiome, neurological and immune system’s coordinated interactions. On a molecular level, more precisely looking in proteomic dynamics, mitochondria, DNA and the sirtuins. Cascading endocrinopathies can then occur impacting insulin dynamics, body fat, thyroid, neurological and brain function.”

He added, “The totality of these factors and the multiple major to minor hits in their functioning and subsequent incongruities in the coordination with one another engenders and can dictate a slow or rapid aging process in most otherwise healthy circumstances.”

Chronic higher levels of inflammation is also a known aging accelerator, and is a condition that is associated with etiologies of various age-related diseases, pointed out Tanja Kokkinis, international business coordinator, Pharmako Technologies (Australia). “Inflammation is well known to promote disease in the body and is a cause of many conditions associated with aging,” she commented. “Scientists believe chronic, low-level inflammation plays a major role in almost every chronic disease. Reducing inflammation is key to better health and healthy aging.”

Free radical damage incurred by life can have dramatic influences in aging. Annie Eng, CEO, HP Ingredients, Florida identified chronic high stress as an aging accelerant that needs to be well controlled. As we age and experience stress, this heightens free radical damage, with cells becoming damaged at an increased rate. She stated, “Researchers now believe that autophagy is a survival mechanism that has anti-aging benefits. It helps to clear damaged cells from the body, including senescent cells and damaged cells which trigger inflammatory pathways and contribute to various diseases.“

According to Mariko Hill, global innovation manager, Gencor Pacific, declining production of palmitoylethanolamide (PEA)—which the body makes from fat and is a potent anti-inflammatory compound that can reduce pain, inflammation, and stress—makes the body more prone to damage from environmental factors—such as poor diet, pollution, stress, smoking, alcohol and injury.

Marshall explained, “The inhibition of the formation of markers responsible for oxidative stress: advanced glycation end products (AGEs), brings immense healthy aging formulation opportunity. AGEs increase reactive oxygen species (free radicals; highly reactive molecules that are continually generated as a natural byproduct through aerobic metabolism—the way energy is produced in the body). Dysbiosis can impact the immune system from the resulting antioxidant and ROS imbalance.”

Further, Marshall explained, the same glucose that provides energy for cells also reacts with proteins, including the skin’s collagen. The resulting AGEs contribute to collagen cross-linking, (which causes wrinkles), inflammation, inhibited skin cell growth and accelerated aging. As skin is exposed to UV light through time, collagen fibrils structurally modify because of glycation. One of the consequences of AGEs are cross links, which degrade skin’s extracellular matrix by chaining the proteins together. Cross-linking reduces elasticity in softer tissues such as skin. “Given that AGEs can impact the physiological appearance of aging, paired with aptly suited acronym for AGE-ing, the approach of AGEs and antioxidant support is one that supports a story that may appeal to many,” she commented.

Von Oppen-Bezalel’s favorite theories of aging are the caloric restriction theory of aging and the mitochondrial/free radical theory of aging, which, she noted, are deeply entwined in how they affect aging processes. She stated that the most recent theory is that the major causes of aging are mitochondrial reactive oxygen species (ROS)-induced damage and declines in mitochondrial functions, respiration, energy production and mitochondrial biogenesis.

Calorie restriction—approximately between a 20 to 40 percent reduction in calorie intake without creating malnutrition—“is the most robust environmental intervention that slows aging and extends lifespan,” she declared. “Although the molecular mechanism of the caloric restriction theory of aging is not yet completely understood, it always includes mitochondrial health and free radical damage as influences toward or against an extended healthy life span. Several longevity molecular pathways that were identified through caloric restriction studies play an important role in the regulation of mitochondrial biogenesis and/or function.”

There is also the telomere theory of aging, which has been gaining traction. This area of research involves telomeres—the protein-bound structures located at the ends of chromosomes. Telomeres shorten with cell division and, in some tissues, from age so the goal is to activate the enzyme telomerase, which protects telomeres by making them more resistant to shortening.

In men, Eng added, the body’s reduced production of testosterone can often cause fatigue, weight gain, low mood, reduced muscle strength and sexual insufficiency. Low T, as it is called, can facilitate aging in men.

Hill also believes that declining testosterone production in men exacerbates aging. Testosterone decline leads to noticeable losses in muscle mass, strength, libido and quality of life. For that reason, she emphasized, dietary supplements that support the production of testosterone naturally in the body is important to support vitality in males.

Degradation of connective tissue through time is a process that increases not only physiological aging but visual aging, according to Suhail Ishaq, president of California-based Biocell Technology. “Intrinsic aging produces many physiological changes that affect how the body looks and feels, which depends, at least in part, upon the structural integrity of the connective tissue. Connective tissue binds all the organs and other tissues of the body. Aging gradually weakens the connective tissue by depleting components of the extracellular matrix (ECM), including collagen, glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), and proteoglycans by UV-initiated photo-damage and other lifestyle risk factors such as smoking or chronic exposure to environmental pollutants,” he explained.

He added that there is a demonstrated association between aging progression and the steady deterioration of the extracellular matrix in connective tissue, which results from decreased synthesis and increased degradation of molecules essential for connective tissue integrity. Because collagen and GAGs such as chondroitin sulfate (CS) and hyaluronic acid (HA) are the key constituents of the ECM, “their replenishment could help counteract various undesirable effects of aging. These effects include overall bodily weakness, vulnerability to injury, and visible facial changes,” Ishaq commented.

Healthy Aging Solutions

There are many compelling dietary supplement ingredients that will provide powerful protection for the body as it ages. And, as aging itself takes time, so too should the supplements aimed in this category be meant to be taken for the long-term. In other words, consumers who are committed to healthy lifestyles need to be committed to the healthy aging supplements they choose to take.

And by many counts, the burgeoning category of “healthy aging” supplements, beverages and topicals is skewing to a younger audience, who are motivated by their experiences during the pandemic. According to Nutrition Business Journal’s 2021 Condition Specific Report, it is “possible that the true effect of the pandemic on the healthy aging supplement market won’t be known for decades. It’s possible that younger consumers who become part of the “next normal” of increased supplement interest and consumption will be looking for healthy aging options in the future.”

McNamara summarized, “As attention to aging increases around the world, there is a growing convergence around the concept of “healthy aging” among scientists, policymakers and practitioners. Functional ability for older people includes not only the ability to meet basic needs and be mobile, but also the ability to build and maintain relationships, make decisions, learn and contribute to society.” NIE