The Future of Supplements

The relationship between the dietary supplement industry and pharmaceuticals is like Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore…one is a lot older, one is immature, and you can never really be sure who is in charge.

The 1994 Dietary Supplement Health & Education Act (DSHEA) was supposed to make dietary supplements safer; instead, it simply encouraged more creativity on the part of manufacturers and the people who market supplements to the public. The result is that many supplements on the market these days are hybrid pharmaceuticals/supplements which the 5-person FDA review team doesn’t have enough time in the day to sort through. There are 1,000’s of new products hitting the market (claiming everything from 1 day fat loss to steroid alternatives) and they can’t possibly weed out all of the products making drug-like claims before a lot of people have tossed them in their pie holes.

One thing is for sure - the dietary supplement industry is growing faster than anyone can keep up with. The laws have not evolved as fast as the industry has, as is often the case in any high growth industry like technology (think Napster and the way the law lagged the innovation).

Fit Fuel is building a platform for future developments in the industry, a base off which we can distribute, develop and market products. One day, we may even move beyond supplements to pharmaceuticals, especially since the lines are blurring. All with the aim of improving people’s lives and helping solve some of the biggest issues in government, business and communities.

Here are the top 3 areas that I believe dietary supplements will have the biggest impact in the next 10 years:

1. Cognitive Function/Workforces - the industry will move beyond pumping out products to help people look better in front of a mirror and move toward developing highly effective products to improve memory, thought processes and focus. We’ve already seen the power of prescription drugs like Adderall (a Schedule II controlled substance) on mental performance, but what if we could develop a safe, non-prescription equivalent? What company wouldn’t pay mega dollars to have its employees cranking on it? I sure would.

2. Military Use - soldiers of the future are probably going to look something like Iron Man. The military is already developing high tech suits for Special Forces troops and is allocating well over $1 billion to the development of supplements and drugs that will improve stamina, focus, and strength in its soldiers. Imagine a super solider able to stay awake for 3 days at a time with super-human strength or the ability to run twice as long and hard as normal soldiers? Is that an army any country would like to fight against?

3. The Insurance Industry / Preventative Care - there are billions of dollars wasted every year in our health care system because it is a treatment based system rather than a prevention based system. Insurance companies are already awarding employers major incentives for implementing wellness programs, and the next step is going to be encouraging the use of preventative care programs, especially for high-risk individuals (genomics plays a role in determining who those people are, but that’s an entirely different blog) that awards lower premiums or incentives to those who use certain approved dietary supplements (a proper Vitamin supplementation program or weight control supplements, for example) to prevent costly diseases. Much progress will need to be made in the coming years to come up with a class of supplements that fits into this category - I believe a new tier will emerge in the industry somewhere between supplements and pharmaceuticals. This tier will contain supplements that have received top certifications and approvals due to highly efficacious effects that have been proven in clinical studies, yet the supplement would not require a prescription.

Oddly enough, there was no mention of sports performance - the thing supplements are probably tied most closely to these days - in any the above 3 major areas. Barry Bonds’-type “supplements” are not the future of the industry. Unless, of course, you’re the owner of a professional sports franchise.

Hmmm…the Cubs are for sale, aren’t they?

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