00:05This is Ani Schleicher reporting for Nutrition Insight.

00:08I'm here with Morgan Mayar, Marketing Group Manager at Lanaman Health Solutions.

00:13Hi, Morgan, it's a pleasure to have you, have you with us here today.

00:16Hi.

00:18Thank you.

00:18So, key themes in the nutrition industry are currently immune health, gut health, and mental health.

00:24Can you perhaps share a bit on how these three sectors overlap and how probiotics are centered in the middle of that Venn diagram?

00:32Yeah, sure.

00:33So for sure, probiotics, we know them for their beneficial effects on gut health.

00:38They have been widely recognized and they are documented, but beyond that, they have also scientific documentation on immune health, and more recently we have seen also additional data on mental health.

00:51This is definitely areas of interest for probiotics.

00:55And if we consider, for example, just quick facts, for example, 70% of our immune health, immune system is actually present in our gut.

01:05This is what we call the gut, the gut associated lymphoid tissue.

01:09And we also have 500 million neurons actually innervating our gut.

01:17This is what we call the enteric nervous system.

01:20So, really the probiotics, they will start their action.

01:24Their first site of action is actually in the gut and thanks to this presence of immune system and also Neurons in the gut, they will be able also to have this action on different organs in the body.

01:43Mental health and, and stress surely isn't a novel characteristic, to these pandemic times, but in what ways has the pandemic reshaped that overlapping structure and, what does Laman have to take into consideration that it may not have had to before the virus outbreak?

02:01Yeah.

02:02So, sure, the, the consumers' behavior, they have evolved over the last year.

02:06This is a reality, especially if we look at the food supplement and the probiotic market.

02:11We also, evolution changes and, we just take an example of statistics that we observed.

02:20For example, we saw that 64% of consumers, they were more conscious about their immunity and 43% about their mental -being.

02:31So, it really resonates actually with the mantra, which is a healthy mind, healthy body.

02:37I really like it because actually now people, they are more aware about the fact to consider on an equal footing physical health but also psychological health.

02:50There is definitely an importance of considering both of them because we know we have had to protect ourselves, but we know also that for example, the stress may have a negative impact on immunity.

03:05So, I will just take an example.

03:08For example, we have a, a probiotic strains called BB fom Rosel 71.

03:14This is a probiotic that has been studied in academically stressed students.

03:19And, so this is, a healthy population but still stressed, because the study has been performed, before and around the exams period.

03:30And we could really see that the probiotics could help actually increase the proportion of LCDs.

03:37And in addition, in a post-hoc analysis, we saw as that the probiotic was able actually to decrease gut disorders that may be linked to stress.

03:51So definitely this is a solution that could be helpful for students, and we have seen that this specific population.

03:57Was actually indeed in need of such solution.

04:02They had to face really specific challenging like losing the social life or caring for the future.

04:09But in addition to that type of stress, there is also the physical stress, and as another type of example, I will consider the strain LLVTQ TL10.

04:20So this is a strain that has been studied in active people in three clinical studies showing that it was able to restore a normal level of immune system that has been lowered by actually exercise.

04:38And finally, now, if I look at more the stress area.

04:43This is really something which is interesting today, especially in the world of probiotics.

04:47We are talking about the brain galaxies, and for sure this bi-directional communication is really important to consider today.

04:55And with actually the psychobbiotic cerebium, so this is a combination of two specific strains, we could see that it can be really beneficial for a healthy population, but also for people who are depressed, so more specific population already taking some antidepressants.

05:16So, with that solution, actually, we, we can really target the specific groups with positive outcomes of clinical studies.

05:24So gathering 5 clinical studies, 10 pre-clinical studies, so looking at really the mechanism of action of what is happening when the probiotics is taken and then having its effect in the gut and finally on the brain.

05:37So, it's not just, it really goes beyond science because for that specific product we have approved health claim in Canada, in Brazil, just as an example on mood balance, general signs of anxiety, for example.

05:56We focus a lot on adult supplementation, but what changes have you at Loman Health Solutions seen in terms of children's immunity and -being, and what trends are you taking note of?

06:07Yes, so, as a new trends, so we followed as.

06:10The consumers' behavior over last year and we could see that the parents, they were really in demand in terms of solutions for their children's immunity.

06:20We have, they had to to consider this hygiene routine and this.

06:28Kind of, can be difficult sometimes for children, but for sure the parents, they, they wanted also to consider food supplement, in this hygiene routine.

06:38If we look at, for example, number of online reviews, for probiotics, for children's immunity, there was an increase by 69% over last year.

06:49So definitely there was this demand from the consumer level to look for, to, to have this type of solutions.

06:56Now how probiotics can support children.

06:59So actually, I would take just an example of our probiokit combination.

07:04So I call it the superhero for infant and child immunity, because it gathers actually 3 different probiotic strains and also a prebiotic, which is a fructoligosaccharides.

07:16So looking at different aspects of immunity.

07:19The maturation of the immunity because we know that in young children and also in infants, the immune system is still building, so we need to reinforce it in order that it goes in the right direction.

07:31And we have also some data looking at older children.

07:36We were at school and showing that during the wintertime, the probioki, the probiokid solution was able actually to decrease by 25% the risk of an adverse health event and by 40% absenteeism from school.

07:53And now, beyond direct effect on immunity, we have also to consider that probiotics, when talking about natural defenses, they also have a beneficial effect on our gut barrier and our intestinal gut barrier.

08:09This is really important because the intestinal barrier is actually our second line of defense after skin.

08:16So we need to consider it and we need to maintain this good gut barrier integrity.

08:22So definitely all the clinical studies already existing on probiotics and gut health, they can also benefit our natural defenses.

08:31And my final question is, what's next for Lalaman Health Solutions in this space and what potential do you further see for probiotics in this triangle of immunity, mental health, and gut health?

08:42OK, good question.

08:45But for sure, this triangle is really important for us and because we saw this evolution of behavior over last year and still this year.

08:55So for sure, our aim here is to deliver a product gathering all these different aspects of needs with our probiotics and also additional ingredients.

09:08So we can also combine with other ingredients of interest.

09:12Because we have an R&D department checking that additional ingredients can be compatible, meaning that they won't affect the survival of the probiotics, so it can go from standard, I would say ingredients for immunity like vitamin C or vitamin D.

09:29We also have a range of yeast-based ingredients with standardized level of minerals and vitamins.

09:36And for stress and sleep management, we also have vitamins, minerals, but also the more trendy melatonin and atraganda.

09:44So that could be interesting to propose to the final consumer this type of solution gathering all the needs in different, , daily y forms targeting each age population.

09:55Each targeted population, but for sure what we need to consider now is that we are living today in an aseptic environment.

10:05It is important for us to be protected from the outside, but what we need to consider is that our microbiome.

10:13Our different microbiome all over our body, they need this interaction.

10:17So for sure, the probiotics will be a really good candidate in order to ensure that the microbiome is still reinforced even during this specific situation.

10:30Fantastic.

10:31This has been Annie Schleicher with Morgan Mayer from Lanaman Health Solutions.

10:35Thank you so much for joining me today on Nutrition Insight.

10:38Thank you.