The Month in 2: 2024 trends — video

Welcome to the age of Ozempic — some 70 million Americans will soon be on this blockbuster weight-loss (and diabetes) drug, which will likely become the largest class of pharmaceutical ever. Thanks for your service, statins (and for helping coQ10 make a name for itself, what with statins depleting the body of coQ10). The Ozempic craze spells opportunity aplenty for the nutrition and supplements world, what with the promise of consumers who are suddenly radically cutting back on calorie counts opting instead for nutrient-dense whole foods and protein powers. Could Ozempic spell the death of chips and junk food? Or will Americans opt instead for their limited palates instead going for the crunch and salt and unhealthy fats of chips and other junk food, and then going for additional pharmaceuticals to contend with the even more unhealthy states? We shall see. But that's not stopping new product developments around both GLP-1 agonists like berberine as well as healthy foods targeting the Ozempic crowd.

Women: Hear them roar! Perimenopause is an emerging category of women's health desires. And speaking of desires, women's libido supplements are coming on strong. Back in the 1970s the government determined that conducted human clinical trials of women of child-bearing age was too complicated, what with all those shifting hormones. So there went the potential body of research for women in their 20s and 30s. But that paradigm is all over now, and new creatine research targeting women has helped creatine's fortunes double in the last year. What's next?

Related:The Month in 2: Sports – video

Sports is now the more expansive, great catch-all of active nutrition. One age-old ingredient is now helping the age-old quarterback for the New York Jets, Aaron Rodgers. Go deep on the story here.

At Natural Products Expo West, mushrooms were everywhere, and lion's mane was the star of the shroom set. As if o prime the pump for '24, a study published in November '23 studied 1.8 grams lion's mane on both the acute (60-minutes post-dose) and the chronic (28 days) effects on actual healthy, young adults. Survey says: Improved speed of mental performance and reduced stress in, again, healthy young adults. It's research like this that should help continue propel lion's mane through the year. What's next after lion's mane for cognition? How about reishi — the mushroom of immortality — or cordyceps for endurance as it rides the coattails of the active nutrition uber-trend?

What's the supplement of the year? Hint: it's as sustainable as all get-out, right down to the aluminum bottle and cap and the soy-based ink printed right on the canister.

Related:The Month in 2: Biotics — video

In the time it spent to read all this, you could've watch the 2-minute video. Watch it anyway!