Biomarker research and proactive wellness reshape heart health innovations

The nutrition industry highlights market opportunities in targeted cardiovascular solutions as heart health is becoming a proactive wellness priority for consumers, from maintaining vascular function and metabolic health to longevity. 

According to Innova Market Insights, the rising awareness of cardiovascular wellness is driving more targeted product launches across supplements and sports nutrition. 

Nutrition Insight meets with PLT Health Solutions, Sirio, ProBiotix Health, Gnosis by Lesaffre, and Layn Natural Ingredients to explore how advances in biomarker research, clinical substantiation, and ingredient innovations are reshaping the category. 

Steve Fink, VP of marketing at PLT Health Solutions, observes a greater focus on maintaining vascular function and healthy blood pressure before problems develop. “That makes solid human clinical research especially important — the science has to show meaningful cardiovascular outcomes.” 

“Heart health is no longer something people think about only after they reach a certain age,” he adds. “I think there is a real opportunity with younger and middle-aged consumers who want to maintain cardiovascular health, stay active, and support healthy aging.” 

Fink believes that the next generation of heart health products will combine meaningful clinical substantiation, premium sourcing, sustainability, traceability, and delivery formats that fit the way consumers live today.

Alexej Dens, sales director at Sirio Europe, adds that heart health is shifting from broad reassurance toward concrete numbers that consumers can track. 

“For ingredient developers, that changes the focus from simply including a recognized heart-health ingredient to understanding whether the formulation can effectively deliver an appropriate dose and support consistent supplementation,” he notes. 

Fink warns generic grape seed extracts differ sharply from clinically studied ones, such as PLT Health Solutions’ MegaNatural-BP.He says that bioavailability, delivery format, and day-to-day adherence shape the result. “This is where formulation expertise earns its place — turning cardiovascular science into the delivery of a clinically relevant dose in a product people will keep taking.”

Untapped potential

Dens observes untapped potential in creating multi-ingredient formulations, such as combining omega-3 with vitamin D or astaxanthin to support cardiovascular health and longevity. 

“Cardiovascular health rarely sits on its own,” he adds. “For many consumers, it is closely tied to how well they are aging and their wider metabolic health.” 

“Factors such as blood pressure, blood lipids, and blood glucose are all part of that bigger healthy-aging and metabolic health picture, so there is an opportunity to move beyond supplements focused on one cardiovascular marker and toward concepts that support overall health as people age.”

Pernille Butho Tørnes, head of product management at ProBiotix Health, highlights reformulation opportunities in the EU, as it is expected to ban monacolins from red yeast rice and has placed berberine under regulatory scrutiny. 

“Health brands will need to seek safe, scientifically substantiated alternatives that can support a reduction in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) and very low-density lipoprotein (VLDL) particle production and provide a clear point of market differentiation.” 

She believes the strongest market opportunities for brands today lie in healthy aging and menopause categories, due to their ability to cross over into numerous heart health products to address wider long-term health priorities. 

Tørnes explains that the same pathways implicated in atherosclerosis (plaque buildup in arteries), cholesterol, blood pressure, and circulation are often reviewed in vascular aging, which she says is a “central determinant of our lifespan.” 

Dens highlights algal oil as an option to diversify omega-3 sources as the supply chain is under pressure.Moreover, she says there is untapped potential in wearables and at-home diagnostics, which are changing how people engage with their cardiometabolic markers. Such tools translate complex biometrics into understandable trends to support more personalized nutrition. 

“Due to this, consumers are increasingly integrating metabolic and cardiovascular considerations into their lifestyle and dietary choices, reflecting a broader shift toward active, early intervention should their current lifestyle be inadequate.”

Beyond generic extracts

Fink points to commoditization as one of the key challenges holding back innovation in heart health solutions. For example, he says consumers may assume ingredients are interchangeable when they see the words “grape seed extract.” He says that extracts can differ substantially in composition, consistency, sourcing, and clinical support.

For example, he highlights PLT Health Solutions’ MegaNatural-BP as a patented grape seed extract. “It has been studied in nine human clinical trials looking at cardiovascular and other health benefits, including healthy blood pressure, arterial function, blood flow, and endurance.”

“In one randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study, adults with prehypertension who took 300 mg a day saw reductions of 5.6% in systolic blood pressure and 4.7% in diastolic blood pressure after six weeks,” Fink details. “When they stopped taking the ingredient, their blood pressure moved back toward baseline.”

Additionally, he says a 300 mg dose of MegaNatural-BP reduced mean arterial pressure in prehypertensive men during exercise and improved flow-mediated dilation. “In Division I basketball players, 300 mg a day for 14 days significantly reduced oxygen consumption at defined workloads and increased time to exhaustion.” 

He underscores that these results were not achieved with a generic grape seed extract. “The grape varietal, when it is harvested, and how it is extracted can all affect an extract’s constituent profile and biological activity. That is why substantiation on the specific ingredient matters.”

Vitamin K2 benefits

Dr. Stacey Smith, senior medical affairs liaison with Gnosis by Lesaffre, points to data from the Council for Responsible Nutrition estimating that vitamin K2 use could “reduce coronary artery disease (CAD) events by 15.7% and save the US health care system US$9.48 billion (2022–2030).”

Tørnes argues the ApoB biomarker predicts cardiovascular risk more accurately than LDL cholesterol.She highlights a 2026 trial published in JAMA Cardiology as an important new scientific insight for this nutrient. She says the two-year, randomized, placebo-controlled trial in patients with CAD confirmed that vitamin K2 as menaquinone-7 (MK-7) significantly slowed progression of coronary artery calcification (CAC). 

Smith says this “largest study” on MK-7 and CAC progression built on earlier preclinical and clinical studies showing how inhibition of the vitamin K cycle resulted in elevated levels of uncarboxylated matrix Gla protein (MGP) and in extensive arterial calcification. 

Moreover, she says that previous research on Gnosis by Lesaffre’s MenaQ7 MK-7 ingredient showed improvement in vitamin K-dependent MGP activation and arterial elasticity. 

“In the study, 180 participants with a baseline Agatston score between 50 and 400 consumed either 360 micrograms of MK-7 (as MenaQ7) or a placebo daily for 24 months,” says Smith. 

“Agatston score measures the amount of coronary calcification. CAC scoring is very important as it reflects the ‘vascular age’ of the coronary arteries by measuring calcified plaque, making it a useful tool for assessing cardiovascular risk.”

In people with mild coronary disease, the researchers measured an approximately 29% lower progression in the Agatston score. Smith says this suggests that MK-7 could also reduce new CAC, in addition to attenuating established CAC. 

“A similar trend was observed for calcium mass, which is a more accurate marker of the calcification process than calcium volume,” she adds. “The MK-7 group showed approximately 42% less progression in calcium mass versus placebo.”

Heart-healthy omega-3 formats

Dens from Sirio Europe says diversification away from marine fish oil is one of the clearest opportunities in heart health solutions.

Smith points to two-year MK-7 trial data, linking the vitamin to slower coronary artery calcification.Since the 2023 El Niño season, omega-3 supply has remained under pressure, he says. “That has continued into 2026, with disrupted fishing seasons, lower yields, and ongoing price fluctuations. For brands, relying too heavily on one raw material is becoming a risk that’s increasingly difficult to ignore.”

He points to algal oil as a more stable and sustainable source of omega-3s, which also makes them more relevant and accessible to the growing vegan market. 

“But there are other routes too,” Dens adds. “Krill oil has a well-established place in the category, while marine sources, such as calanus oil, are attracting increasing interest. Plant-based ingredients like ahiflower can also bring something different to the table, particularly when combined with algae oil to create a broader fatty acid profile.”

He expects softgels to “continue to do much of the heavy lifting” in heart health, as these work well for omega-3s and consumers are familiar with them. 

However, he highlights clear gaps in the market, such as people looking for vegan options, older people who may already be taking several capsules a day, and anyone who struggles with swallowing a large softgel. 

“For these consumers in particular, the experience of taking the supplement needs to be considered from the start of the development process. Format shouldn’t be something that gets decided at the end. If a heart health product is easy and pleasant to take, consumers are more likely to keep taking it.”

Comprehensive cardiac care

James Roza, chief scientific officer at Layn Natural Ingredients, cautions that biomarkers typically used to determine the risk of developing heart disease often do not provide a comprehensive view of someone’s cardiovascular status. He says typical biomarkers include total cholesterol, LDL, and triglycerides.

To assess a person’s cardiovascular fitness, he says it is important to analyze biomarkers such as lipoprotein(a) and C-reactive protein. “C-reactive protein is used as an indicator of low-grade vascular inflammation that can lead to plaque buildup in the arteries, and lipoprotein(a) levels are also used to assess the risk of increased clotting and plaque deposition.”

Moreover, he notes that heart disease can also be attributed to aging, stress, and poor sleep quality as heart disease is not only a result of diet, lifestyle, and genetic predispositions. 

“Stress reduction, healthy aging, and restorative sleep are prime market opportunities for the nutraceutical industry to serve consumer needs,” says Roza. “Our aging population plus a greater awareness among younger people about the importance of staying fit are among the groups that would respond most favorably.” 

Roza calls for biomarker panels that go beyond cholesterol and triglycerides alone to assess a person’s cardiovascular fitness.He also calls for educating and offering affordable products to people living in food deserts with limited means, as they have higher risk levels. 

Moreover, he says it is key to identify the interconnectedness between the gut and brain and to emphasize the role of healthy glucose levels and liver health in protecting the heart. 

Measuring disease risk

Tørnes at ProBiotix Health highlights another biomarker for heart health as the scientific community is increasingly examining apolipoprotein B (ApoB) levels, in addition to blood pressure, inflammation, and overall vascular function. 

“One of the biggest changes in cardiovascular science over the last decade is the growing evidence base for ApoB as a superior marker of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease risk over LDL cholesterol (LDL-C), which has long been the standard in measuring risk,” she highlights. 

“In a 2025 systematic review of LDL-C, Non-HDL-C and ApoB, published in the Journal of Clinical Lipidology, ApoB was found to be more accurate at predicting heart disease risk in nine out of nine studies.” 

Tørnes explains that, rather than calculating the mass of lipoprotein particles, ApoB measures and indicates a number of these particles. 

“In terms of ingredient development, the growing focus on ApoB is shifting attention from cholesterol levels alone toward the number of potentially harmful cholesterol-carrying particles in the blood.” 

She adds that a greater understanding of the connections between cardiovascular health, metabolic function, and the gut microbiome is encouraging the development of more targeted ingredients and formulations in this category.