Nutraceuticals World (NW): Muscle health can apply to many consumer demographics, from athletes to seniors and everyone in-between. What important trends are shaping today’s marketplace?
 
Larry Kolb, President, TSI Group LTD: We see the muscle health category transitioning beyond the traditional sports nutrition consumers in the direction of two rapidly expanding and largely untapped consumer muscle health categories: active nutrition and healthy aging. Active nutrition customers are between the ages of 25 and 55. These consumers want strength to perform better. They want to improve their level of daily physical activity, endurance, and recovery. They want to look and feel better, and they strive to improve their body composition.
 
Healthy aging customers are over 60 and they want to maintain their strength and mobility. They want to feel better, more energetic, and they want to improve their quality of life through activity and strength. After the age of 35, we all lose between 1.5% and 2% of our muscle mass every year, so over time if you don’t manage your muscle health earlier in life, you will lose a significant amount of muscle by the time you are 80.
 

NW: How have science and research evolved to better understand muscle health and its implications for healthy aging?
 
Kolb: In addition to muscle mass, muscle function and strength are being recognized more and more as indicators of muscle health. Over the past 10 years, this broadening of study endpoints to include muscle function and strength measurements resulted in a greater number of studies covering muscle health.
 
Handgrip strength testing is becoming a very important measurement tool for physicians. It can serve as a go-to systemic indication of a patient’s muscle strength and function and also determination of their overall health.
 
Recent studies show the combination of HMB and vitamin D uniquely improves muscle health by turning on the body’s muscle-building machinery: simultaneously increasing muscle protein synthesis and decreasing muscle protein breakdown. This combination has been shown to increase strength and improve muscle function in an aging population, even without exercise.


NW: Protein has traditionally dominated the muscle health ingredient market but the conversation has gotten more nuanced. What more do we understand about nutrition and supplements for muscle health?
 
Kolb: Today, everything is focused on delivering more protein to the consumer with a variety of product forms and choices. Brands differentiate by saying “our product delivers more protein” using the “more is better” approach when, in fact, it’s well known that eating more protein is not addressing the problem of age-related muscle loss. A large percentage of aging consumers are not able to utilize the protein they consume, so simply adding more protein can add more calories to their diet and cause weight gain. This is why it’s important to shift this conversation and educate consumers about not only eating enough protein, but also understanding the importance of protein utilization. Consumers need to know the shortcomings of protein and amino acids—more is not necessarily better. We need to focus the education on other nutrients that enhance the utilization of protein and amino acids, like HMB.
 
Formulators and product developers are looking for ingredients that can help differentiate protein products with ingredients that add value to the heavily commoditized protein product category. myHMB®, a patented, clinically proven brand of HMB, is an excellent partner to protein; it helps balance muscle protein turnover for optimal muscle health, both enhancing muscle growth through synthesis, and protecting against muscle loss in times of accelerated protein breakdown. HMB allows the protein/amino acids consumed to be optimally utilized by this muscle machinery to build muscle.


NW: What is HMB, what benefits does it offer, and how does it work?

Kolb: Scientifically known as β-hydroxy β-methylbutyrate, HMB is produced naturally in our bodies during the metabolism of the essential amino acid leucine. HMB has been shown to increase protein synthesis while reducing protein breakdown in muscle. Therefore, these mechanisms result in improvements in muscle strength and mass, endurance, exercise recovery (reduced muscle damage), and improved body composition. As mentioned above, even without exercise, HMB (when combined with vitamin D) has been shown to improve muscle function in older adults.
 
NW: Brands increasingly rely on their suppliers in the product development process. What does TSI offer to its partners?
 
Kolb: TSI supports our current and prospective customers by proactively developing innovative formulations in diverse and trending delivery formats so our partners have options based on their target audience and marketing strategy. This allows TSI to offer many turnkey solutions that shorten the time it takes to launch, since product development and R&D time can be reduced. TSI takes great pride in doing the “heavy lifting” for our partners that helps us both grow and prosper.


 
NW: The range of muscle health product options has evolved to more than just ready-to-mix powders. How are brands innovating to offer new formulations and delivery formats?
 
Kolb: TSI has been creating innovative prototypes that include gummies, effervescent tablets, clear beverages, and even food products like bars and ready-to-drink meal replacements. Capsules are a simple delivery, yet consumers suffering from pill fatigue are turning to other delivery forms for taste as well as convenience with what suits their lifestyle.

NW: TSI is turning 25 years old. Can you reflect on this milestone, and what’s in store in the future?
 
Kolb: Over the past 25 years, TSI has focused on being a market creation innovator of nutritional products and solutions that deliver better health, quality of life, and longevity.
 
We put the health of consumers above all else and it drives everything we do. With all our products and services, we provide health and wellness solutions that exceed our customers’ expectations every day.
 
TSI will continue on this growth path as you will see with our pipeline of new product launches and services in 2021 and beyond.

(READ MORE ABOUT TSI GROUP’S VISION, INNOVATION AND SOLUTIONS IN THIS INTERVIEW WITH FOUNDER AND CEO JOE ZHOU.)