Dr. Vegan: Start-up spotlights supplements for men's health
Gordon Lott, CEO and founder of Dr. Vegan explained the decision to create a men’s health supplement responded to a clear lack of available support for the changing needs of older men.
“When you look at the available options in men’s health, there hasn’t been a complete all-in-one formula specifically targeted at prostate health, which is obviously a significant issue for men like me who are 45 or over,” he said.
“My father had prostate cancer which doubled my chance of getting it. So if you have a family history or of black ethnicity, you’re twice as likely to get a prostate cancer diagnosis. And when you think about that and look at the market, there’s actually very little to support men’s prostate health, as well as their energy, gut health, immunity, hair, and skin,” he added.
The capsules contain a range of vitamins, minerals, pro- and prebiotics, as well as botanicals including nettle root, pumpkin seed, maca and ashwagandha, which have been shown to support prostate health and testosterone levels.
He emphasized that women are likely to be thinking about their health at a younger age than men, and there was a need for increased awareness around men’s health conditions.
Therapeutic dosages
Lott noted that his experience working for Nature's Bounty Company exposed him to the array of existing supplements on the market, which he observed often contained additives.
“Consumers don't look at additives, they just look at the nutritional table, and they think that's what's in there,” he explained. “Additives are completely unnecessary and cause side effects and be harmful.
“So many supplements on the market also have formulas that are incomplete. Many brands in the past and still today look for a trending ingredient, and they may add one or two others, rather than really trying to solve the consumers health issue. Whether it's menopause, IBS, stress, companies often don’t address the symptoms and have low ingredient quantities.”
He added that consumers often must pay a premium for supplements that do contain higher quality ingredients.
"So we wanted to create a brand that was using naturally sourced, plant-based ingredients with optimal formulas that really would have everything in there that would be recommended by a nutritional expert to address your symptoms," he said. "We wanted high, therapeutic dosages with no nasty additives."
Dr. Vegan’s supplement range includes a selection of vitamins, minerals, amino acids and botanicals, with bestselling products ranging across women’s health, gut health, sleep and beauty categories.
Lott emphasized that the company focuses on the development of formulas based on the scientific evidence available: "It's not just about, okay what's the health claim? The ingredient comes into the formula because of the science and the research that we undertake, which is based on all available knowledge and evidence to show it's beneficial. If it doesn't have a claim, then we just won't make the claim."
In-house research
Lott spotlighted the company’s top performing Menofriend supplement, which contains a range of clinically tested botanicals including wild yam, dandelion root, mung bean, red clover extract and maca, as well as minerals, B-vitamins, vitamin D3 and vitamin K2.
He explained that Dr. Vegan conducts further research on the final formulas in-house to further validate the health benefits and provide additional nutritional and health advice on its platform.
"One area that's really under-researched is gut health during menopause," he said. "It’s well known that the gut microbiome is vital for hormone regulation. And likewise, your hormones are important for gut health. So, there's a real a real symbiotic relationship there. Therefore, when you're going through menopause, the fluctuations in those hormones really affect the gut health.
“But there's actually very little data on what happens, what are the gut health symptoms that women experience? When do they start experiencing them? Is it during perimenopause or menopause?”
To further understand this, the Dr. Vegan team conducted a survey of over 1,500 women going through perimenopause and menopause and recorded their gut health symptoms.
“As far as we're aware, it's the first and the largest study of its kind," Lott said. "Research found out that the most common symptoms are bloating. 91% experience changing gut health during menopause, including bloating, constipation, excessive wind and gas, acid reflux and IBS was very common.
“The research showed that 80% tried to adapt their diet to help with this, with 66% finding these changes effective. This included increasing plant intakes, reducing, or avoiding alcohol, increasing fibre, and reducing or avoiding dairy and gluten."
He noted that from the study, 89% of the 996 women taking Menofriend found it to be effective for relieving symptoms when taking for 60 days or more.
