Talking Bone and Joint Health With Angie Rimel
Bone and Joint Health
Nutrition Industry Executive (NIE) spoke with Angie Rimel, marketing communications manager – North America for Sioux City, IA-based GELITA to expand on the topic of bone and joint health.
NIE: Speak to the different consumer targets for bone-and-joint health ingredients and supplements today? Active nutrition, sports nutrition, recovery, repair?
Rimel: Bone and joint health needs are traditionally relevant to the healthy aging market. But the link to the sports/active nutrition market is strengthening as mobility solutions are a concern for both consumer targets.
As consumers of all ages increase their focus on active lifestyles, they are also realizing both overuse and increasing age make tendons, ligaments, and joints more injury prone and put bones at increased risk of stress fractures.
So, it is no surprise that white tissue injuries today account for more than 70 percent of the time away from exercise regimens, with personal, financial and emotional consequences to the active person. This indicates that there is a real need for nutritional strategies to strengthen this tissue.
Due to their body-stimulating potential Bioactive Collagen Peptides BCPs, can be used very specifically to improve performance, support connective tissue, or reduce recovery time after heavy exercise.
NIE: Acknowledging that joint health includes ligaments, tendons, muscles and bone, what ingredients are the most comprehensive and wide-ranging in their benefits?
Rimel: Bioactive Collagen Peptides (BCP) from GELITA are versatile and uniquely positioned to target specific health benefits that are important to performance nutrition.
Backed by high-level clinical studies, GELITA’s BCP enables brand owners and manufacturers to offer a range of finished product concepts that target condition-specific needs:
• BODYBALANCE for body toning and increased muscle strength.
• FORTIBONE for improving bone mass density and supporting bone stability and flexibility.
• FORTIGEL for supporting joint health and mobility.
• VERISOL for improved skin elasticity, wrinkle reduction, and even cellulite reduction as well as improved nail growth, stronger hair.
• TENDOFORTE for increasing the health and quality of ligaments and tendons.
NIE: Briefly, what new bone-health/joint-health research is the most exciting?
Rimel: GELITA sees a trend of combining collagen ingredients or collagen with other healthy ingredients for targeted consumer solutions.
GELITA’s Bioactive Collagen Peptides (BCP), which are clinically backed with studies supporting a low dose that optimizes the targeted health benefit, are especially easy to add to formulations.
For example, FORTIBONE with just a 5 g dose improves bone mass density and supports bone stability and flexibility; and FORTIGEL at a dose of 5 g benefits joint health and mobility. However, the molecular weights of each are optimized for specific health benefits. Formulators can easily provide all of these benefits in a combined bone and joint supplement.
To improve bone mass density and support bone stability and flexibility, the specific peptides of FORTIBONE stimulate bone cells to increase the synthesis of bone components such as collagen. They have a kind of “signaling effect” on osteoblasts to trigger collagen synthesis and thus counterbalance the collagen degradation in the extracellular bone matrix, which is the essential framework for bone mineralization.
NIE: What should manufacturers consider when selecting ingredients with which to formulate new bone-and-joint-health products?
Rimel: Brand owners and manufacturers should consider how they want to position their products. Then, check that the specific ingredient is supported by clinical studies. This is really important when formulating with collagen. Not all collagen is the same. As consumers increasingly understand how supplements work, they will choose formulations containing ingredients with the greatest efficacy. It is essential that the functionality of the active ingredient is based on credible science and has been proven in high-quality clinical studies.
