Easing Aches and Stiffness, Naturally!

Helping ease aches and stiffness is an important and growing subject to millions of North Americans according to Vitamin Retailer Magazine. Writer Hilary Daninhirsch took a deep dive into the myriad of natural joint health product options with input from many industry experts, including Michael Bentley of SierraSil, who was recently named one of Canada’s top 100 health influencers. There is growing opportunity from an industry perspective, and supplements aimed to reduce aches and stiffness and calm inflammation are the fastest growing segment in the specialty supplement category which has more than doubled in the last 5 years. The demand is driven not just by aches and stiffness from an aging populations from those on the better side of 50, but also those with sport or exercise related injury are increasingly looking for natural joint health care products to support their healing and prevent further damage.

“As awareness grows of the potential side effects of the OTC and prescription products, and as more consistently efficacious natural products are available, I’d expect a relative increase in natural joint health product sales.” Said Michael Bentley, president of SierraSil Health Inc. based in Vancouver, BC, Canada.

As the industry matures, so too do the product offerings. There are powders, capsules, topicals, chewables, sublinguals and new forms and new products being offered all the time, but traditional capsules are still considered by most to be the easiest to take, convenient and easy to figure out serving sizes. But how do consumers choose which of the more than 1,500 products on the shelves is right for them?

“There is no agreement in the natural health industry on what constitutes adequate or appropriate research for new products. That’s not surprising given the industry fragmentation, the variety of products available, and that many products don’t have novel characteristics that could be patentable.” That is not to say that studies are not being done. In fact, continued Bentley, SierraSil has conducted numerous lab studies with established protocols.” A past director of the Natural Products Association in the U.S. has referenced our research as representing a gold standard for our industry.” He said, and additional research is underway.

Consumers can request the clinical research studies from the manufacturers they are purchasing from for a more detailed explanation of what kind of results they can expect and the validated safety information. For the full article in Vitamin Retailer click here.