Beta-alanine has become a popular sports supplement due to its ability to improve physical performance including endurance, speed, and recovery time. Connections to healthy ageing have also been discovered, with beta-alanine consumption showing benefits for various organ groups and functions which help preserve muscle mass, improve brain and cardiac function, and provide aid to retard bone and ligament deterioration.  

Mark LeDoux, who is the founder, chairman and CEO of NAI, the industry-leading formulator and manufacturer of customized nutritional supplements, joined us to share his experience with beta-alanine, its current applications, and exciting prospects.

Tune in to hear about: 

• The key health benefits when consuming beta-alanine
• The target market for beta-alanine supplements
• Differences between powder and tablet forms of beta-alanine
• The recommended dosage and frequency of beta-alanine intake
• Regulation challenges for beta-alanine within Europe
• The future growth of beta-alanine

Guest: Mark LeDoux, founder, chairman and CEO of NAI

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Ajay 00:23
Hello, and welcome to another Vitafoods Insights Podcast episode. Today we'll be talking about beta alanine. I'm delighted to be joined by Mark LeDoux, who is the founder, chairman and CEO of natural alternatives international or NAI, which is the industry leading formulator and manufacturer of customised nutritional supplements. Thanks for joining me today, Mark.

Ajay 00:47
So I thought we could kick things off with a quick introduction to NAI. Could you briefly describe your motivation for founding this organisation and how this led you to become involved with beta alanine?

Ajay 07:06
Thanks for that. That's a very interesting journey. And it's clear to see you have quite a passion for this area. It's also interesting to see the involvement that NAI has had within the supplement of beta alanine as well. Along those terms, I was wondering, what are some key health benefits and potential contradictions that formulators should be aware of in regards to the consumption of beta alanine? And this can be short term or long term?

Ajay 14:17
In many circumstances, people associate taking beta alanine with pre workout and all the fitness trends. But as you just mentioned, there's a variety of benefits outside of that which target major different demographics which could have such a great impact across the world, and across different societies and healthy ageing. Going to be very interesting to see next 5, 10 years what that look like. You mentioned the difference between sustained release tablet versus maybe powders. Is there sort of different trends and preferences for those?

Ajay 17:17
You mentioned as well, some regulations happening in Switzerland. I was wondering if there's any difficulties within the European market in general for regulations around this product? for example, maybe in the supply chain, which could potentially inhibit adoption of the supplements.

Ajay 19:09
I was wondering as well, along those lines, say given the next five to 10 years, how do you see the future growth of beta alanine looking like within this market?

Mark 22:09
One of the things that's emerged from the global pandemic that we've all been experiencing, is that there is a renewed interest by consumers, across the economic spectrum and the geographic spectrum, to take another look at natural products, as kind of a first line of defence against this type of insult to our systems. You know, a virus, you never know where it's coming from, you never know how long it's going to be around, but this one has been of such significance, that people have really taken a hard look at what are the first lines of defence? What nutrients do I need to be using? What type of water filtration should I be using? What type of sanitary procedures do I need to embark on? And what type of healthy lifestyle do I need to adopt to make me less susceptible to coming down with an infection of ultimately potential demise? So what we have seen over the last couple of years, is a much more concerted effort to learn. And people learn by reading and reviewing, adopting and experiencing for themselves, the benefits of properly made supplements that have been subjected to proper quality controls, as well as proper scientific evaluation. So, I don't see any slowdown in the marketplace, I really am quite pleased to see more and more physicians adopting a more holistic approach to medical status management. And I'm very excited about the future of the industry at large, as long as we maintain the discipline of quality control, and not trying to test quality into something that's deficient after the fact. So, these are exciting times to be in this industry. We need to continue our dialogue with the researchers, the medical professionals and the regulators to make sure that people aren't abused, economically or otherwise. But by the same token that they have full and unfettered access to well-made dietary supplements and regimes, that will in fact, reduce the costs and the burden on the social safety nets of countries around the world. So again, exciting opportunity to share this vision with people all over the world. And we're very much committed to fostering this continued dialogue based on sound scientific principles, and quality research. And I think that's really, the future is bright if we stay focused on that approach.

Mark 25:14
My pleasure, thank you for the opportunity once again, and I look forward to doing this again.