Supplements & Longevity: Dr. Serge Rezzi’s Expert Insights

I’m delighted to share this exclusive interview with Dr. Serge Rezzi, a renowned expert in nutritional biochemistry. Currently serving as the CEO of the Swiss Nutrition and Health Foundation (SNHf) in Epalinges, Switzerland, Dr. Rezzi has dedicated his career to advancing our understanding of nutrition, metabolism, and health optimization.

With a distinguished background that includes key roles at the Swiss Vitamin Institute and the Nestlé Institute of Health Sciences SA, his expertise spans nutritional status, metabolomics, and personalized health strategies. In this conversation, he shares his perspective on the evolving role of supplementation in longevity, offering valuable insights into what truly makes a difference when it comes to optimizing health for the long term.

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• In recent years, the supplement market has seen unprecedented growth. In your opinion, what are the main factors driving this trend? Is it primarily consumer demand for preventive health, advancements in science, or effective marketing strategies?

?The main factor is from my point of view the increasing health consciousness of people and this combined with modern lifestyle and nutritional habits that do not systematically warrant adequate intake of nutrients and essential nutrients in particular such as vitamins, trace elements or long chain fatty omega-3 acids. The aging of the population also invites for considering dietary supplements as a way to cope or at least delay ageing associated-physiological processes and increased needs for specific nutrients that may improve wellbeing. So, I would say that this would be first the increase demand for preventive health. Of course, marketing strategies also amplifies a market growth often using, and unfortunately I would say, overpromises or claims that are not substantiated with strong scientific evidence. There is a clear gap for quality science to support health relevance of dietary supplements in general.

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• Supplements are often divided into two categories: those designed to address specific nutritional deficiencies and those formulated to enhance overall health and well-being. Could you clarify the differences between these two approaches and their respective roles in health management?

Supplements for Specific Nutritional Deficiencies are intended to meet distinctive nutritional requirements that have been well defined for given physiological or clinical conditions. The aim is therefore to correct well characterised deficiencies related to specific vitamins, minerals, or other essential nutrients. Those supplements or medical nutrition products are prescribed by healthcare professionals based on clinical assessments or diagnostic tests. Examples include iron supplements for anemia or vitamin D for those with limited sun exposure.

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Supplements for Overall Health and Well-being are general-purpose formulations aiming at supporting and enhancing overall health. Classical examples include OTC products that contain a broad spectrum of vitamins, minerals, and other beneficial biologically active compounds. Those products are consumed as a proactive preventive measure (primary prevention for instance) by health-conscious people who want to secure optimal nutrient intake that are believed to optimize health status often as part of a holistic health approach including healthy lifestyle and diet. While healthcare professional can or should be used to guide such supplement recommendation, many people actually consume such products following a “self-medication” approach with usually a lack of strong scientific evidence.

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• In your expert opinion, what defines a high-quality supplement? Is it the sourcing of ingredients, the bioavailability, the clinical evidence backing its claims, or all of the above? Could you provide an example of a supplement that embodies these principles?

What defines a high-quality supplement is a warranty of good quality raw materials that ideally should be independently controlled for quality and of course the availability of clinical evidence backing needs for specific nutrients. A large proportion of dietary supplements show important non-compliance issues. Specifically, it is known that many supplement products on the market do not contain what their label indicate. Independent testing has shown that for instance many micronutrients such as vitamins, minerals and trace elements do not reach the levels announced on the product labels. The root causes of this situation that confuse the consumer but also the possible health benefits of supplements are multiple. First, these causes include the absence of rigorous and mandatory testing and approval processes from the regulatory framework. Second, lack of manufacturing consistencies or standardization leads to substandard production practices and quality control that impact product quality. There is also an inherent ingredient variability, particularly when nutrients are obtained from natural source. Third, there are stability concerns during shelf life of the products with significant impact on nutrient loss (omega-3 fatty acids for instance) but also potentially with generation of unfavourable nutrient byproducts (oxidized molecules). All these factors together with a clear emphasis of company marketing on overpromising claims contribute to a situation where consumers are left with a proliferative product offering with variable quality, lack of independent control and demanding regulatory framework and not to forget, an obvious of scientific evidence for the health benefits of consuming dietary supplements.

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• Your quality control studies have highlighted that many supplements on the market fail to meet their label claims. Can you explain the extent of this issue and how it impacts consumer trust and health outcomes?

Possible root causes of product compliance issues were previously introduced. It is estimated, based on studies on vitamins and mineral supplements that at least 40% of the products do not fulfil their composition as declared on their labels. Independent studies to highlight this issue are increasingly conducted to raise consumer awareness. As per today, we see the independent testing and certification as the key to achieve consumer trust and this irrespective of the brands.?

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• Given your findings, is it possible that some nutrient deficiencies in individuals who regularly take supplements could stem from poor-quality products rather than dietary insufficiency? If so, what steps can consumers take to avoid this problem?

I think it is highly possible that some dietary supplements may fail to adequately correct nutritional deficiencies due their intrinsic quality. This makes total sense when one realizes that posology (dose and frequency of supplement intake) is first driven by the declared nutrient composition. If the composition is not as expected, how can a supplement effectively correct nutritional deficiencies ???

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• How important is the origin and quality of raw materials in determining the effectiveness and safety of a supplement? For instance, are there significant differences in efficacy between synthetic ingredients and those derived from natural sources?

The control of the quality throughout the value chain is very important to warrant the compositional quality of the dietary supplement. This begins with a proper selection of the provider of raw materials as well as the definition of a quality system that enables to keep composition under control. This is also important to avoid contamination with undesired substances that may exhibit detrimental effects on health. The use of synthetic ingredients enables an easier control on the ingredient composition and stability. Natural ingredients are more desired by consumers but prone to inherent variability from collection to storage to formulation. The differences between natural and synthetic nutrients such as vitamin C for instance has triggered lot of debate. Natural substances are perceived to be more effective than synthetic by consumer, however if despite the origin the molecule is strictly identical the effect should be the same. Nevertheless, natural substances often carry other molecules that may synergise with the effect of the searched molecule, and in such situation, effect might be different between natural and synthetic ingredients.

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• Many consumers are unaware of the vast differences in quality among supplements. For example, curcumin is often sold in varying grades of purity and bioavailability. How can companies address this knowledge gap and educate consumers about the benefits of investing in higher-quality supplements, despite the higher cost?

Companies could increase their transparency on the quality of their ingredients and products making available all proof of quality controls on a regular basis. A powerful approach to gaining transparency and trust with consumers is to opt for independent testing and certification processes to ascertain the compositions (including the origin) of the ingredients and the products. Marketing strategies could leverage the use of independent quality testing to create a competitive gap with products that are not of the same quality. If superior quality can be demonstrated higher cost can be accepted by consumers.

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• Regulatory frameworks for supplements vary widely across countries. Do you think stricter regulations and standardizations are necessary to ensure product safety and efficacy? Or would they stifle innovation in the industry?

A more demanding regulatory framework will help better quality and safety of products on the market. Standardization of manufacturing practices across different countries will take lot of time, efforts and is unlikely to be a realist option. In the absence of such regulatory evolution, companies can still play the transparency with consumers opting for independent quality control and certification processes. I believe that this would trigger innovation in the supplement industry as for the time being most of the products follow a rather “me too” strategy with little if no differentiation on scientifically proven quality and efficacy.

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• As personalized nutrition becomes more prominent, how do you see the role of supplements evolving? Could we move towards bespoke formulations tailored to individual genetic, lifestyle, and health profiles, and what challenges would that present for manufacturers and consumers alike?

Personalisation, if not rather stratification (formulations addressing the needs of groups of people), is an important trend in the growth of dietary supplements. Formulations tailored for specific lifestyle, just taking cooking habits or sport activity for instance, or even genetic background will become increasingly wanted and popular. The challenges hampering a broad dissemination of value propositions for personalization of dietary supplements are multifaceted. First and foremost, industry is designed to manufacture highly standardized formulations possibly for the greatest number of consumers at the minimal cost. In such a system, increasing the number of stock keeping units (SKU) remains an unfavourable option. Second, personalisation of an offer implies to categorize consumers for customization. In the case of dietary supplements this means the ability to perform accurate diagnostics of nutritional status to set the personalized offer but also and above all to monitor for efficacy. A key challenge for manufacturers remains to manage with efficiency two businesses (manufacturing of supplements and diagnostic business) that are very different in essence. For the consumers, the challenge will be to trustworthy adhere to a supplement personalization program and this is where having strong scientific evidence becomes crucial.

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• Given the widespread use of dietary supplements, do you believe they should play a role in public health initiatives? For example, could supplements targeting specific nutrient gaps (like vitamin D or omega-3) be used to complement traditional healthcare approaches on a population level?

I strongly believe in the role of balanced and varied diet with foods having relevant nutrient density is key for primary (prevention of disease) and secondary (management of risk factors) prevention in public health initiatives. In such a context, there should be not much space left for dietary supplements as diet would provide all necessary macro- and micronutrients to people. However, it is not always possible to reach 100% of nutritional adequacy depending on where people live, their socioeconomic status, their health status… Dietary supplements have thus a role to play in reaching nutritional adequacy but at the conditions that their quality is well under control and that scientific data can support their use for maintaining health bodily functions throughout life. One could start indeed by targeting specific nutrients gaps in childhood for instance or in advanced age.

• Lastly, what advancements or innovations in supplement development are you most excited about? Are there particular ingredients, delivery systems, or technologies that you believe will shape the future of the supplement industry?

I am intrigued by finding biomimetic solutions to increase nutrient stability and bioavailability. Encapsulation techniques have shown their ability to improve absorption and control of time release of nutrients. I think that there is an untapped area of agricultural or industrial side streams that one could leverage for production of dietary supplements. Microalgae, microbial or fungal fermentation also offer a broad reservoir of nutrients with the possibility to drive the production of specific nutrient formulations. Finally, AI may have a role to play to design personalized nutrition programs leveraging the exposome, genome and metagenome spaces of individuals. This will hopefully remain under the control of healthcare professional well educated in food and nutrition sciences.

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This article reflects my personal views and is not intended to replace professional medical advice.