Balchem’s Tom Druke: VitaCholine®, Albion® Chelated Minerals, K2VITAL®, and the NY Jets

Tom Druke, Senior Advertising Supervisor at Balchem, breaks down the science of VitaCholine®, Albion® chelated minerals, and K2VITAL® on Episode #216 of the PricePlow Podcast. Plus: the story behind Balchem’s first-of-its-kind New York Jets ingredient partnership.

0:00 – Introductions: Tom Druke and Balchem

Tom Druke brings about 20 years in client packaged items and nutraceuticals to his function at Balchem. His profession began at Reckitt Benckiser earlier than he moved to Wyeth Client Healthcare, engaged on the Caltrate and Centrum companies. When Pfizer acquired Wyeth, Tom made the leap to Balchem, the place he is now been for roughly 13 years. At the moment he sits inside Balchem’s largest division: Human Diet & Well being, which spans meals ingredient techniques and the corporate’s Minerals & Vitamins group.

Balchem’s portfolio progress has come via three acquisitions: Albion Minerals in 2016, then Bergstrom Diet and Kappa Bioscience (maker of K2VITAL®) in 2022. The corporate’s deal with scientifically supported, specialty-form vitamins is the thread connecting all three. Balchem trades publicly on NASDAQ as BCPC.

3:30 – The New York Jets Partnership

In Might 2024, Balchem launched what Tom and the New York Jets each described as the primary partnership between an ingredient firm and a serious U.S. skilled sports activities group. The marketing campaign promotes VitaCholine below the theme “Supercharge Physique and Thoughts,” a match Tom sees as pure for a sport the place sport information and in-the-moment cognition carry as a lot weight as pure athleticism. Dominik Mattern, Balchem’s EVP of Advertising (who joined via the Kappa Bioscience acquisition), drove the idea.

Tom describes the in-stadium activation at MetLife: handing out hats and speaking straight with followers earlier than halftime. The response is constant: folks genuinely shocked they have not heard of choline, and rapidly connecting to the broader message. Choline is not just for skilled athletes. For anybody attempting to be at their finest, no matter that appears like, getting ample consumption issues.

7:00 – Why Choline Is Important and Broadly Poor

Choline turned an formally acknowledged important nutrient in 1998, and the depletion-repletion research that drove that designation are hanging. When dietary choline is eliminated, topics present elevated AST, ALT, and CPK (liver enzymes and a muscle injury marker), as a result of the physique cannibalizes choline from liver and muscle cells when the weight-reduction plan falls quick.

NHANES knowledge from the CDC places roughly 90% of adults beneath the ample consumption degree, with most falling quick by 100 to 200mg per day. The dietary image has gotten more durable over time: liver consumption has dropped sharply, and egg yolks (a high historic supply) have been largely averted for many years following the ldl cholesterol considerations of the Nineteen Seventies and Nineteen Eighties. Tom notes that macro dietary shift has labored towards choline consumption for a very long time, making supplementation an more and more sensible choice for most individuals.

11:15 – VitaCholine® and Pure L(+)-Bitartrate Sourcing

Ghost Legend V4 went from 500mg to 1000mg of VitaCholine® per serving, delivering 400mg of elemental choline proper earlier than you prepare. Practically 90% of People fall quick on each day choline consumption.

VitaCholine’s tartaric acid provider comes from wine manufacturing. The lees (the residue on the backside of fermentation vats) are refined right down to pure tartaric acid, and since this can be a natural-origin course of, the result’s L(+)-tartaric acid, the isomer present in nature. VitaCholine® makes use of this L(+) supply, touchdown at roughly 40% elemental choline by weight, which sits on the upper finish for frequent choline complement kinds.

Tom addresses the “which kind is finest” query straight: bioavailability research measuring the realm below the curve over 24 hours present that the identical absolute choline content material arrives no matter whether or not the supply automobile is choline bitartrate, Alpha-GPC, or citicoline. The additional molecular attachments in these different kinds do not meaningfully change how a lot choline the physique in the end receives. The sensible conclusion is that getting ample choline amount issues greater than kind choice, particularly for individuals who have low-choline diets.

14:30 – Choline Depletion in Athletes and Data Employees

Ben describes the expertise many hard-training athletes acknowledge however cannot at all times title: days of psychological fog after intense periods. Pure Physique retailer Tim Gritzman pointed him towards high-dose post-training choline as an answer years in the past. The physiology tracks: choline is the precursor to acetylcholine, the neurotransmitter that carries alerts on the neuromuscular junction. Onerous coaching depletes the substrate quick sufficient to depart each muscle mass and cognition working quick.

Mike extends the identical sample to commerce present and podcasting conditions, the place hours of concentrated dialog, decision-making, and stress create a depletion caffeine alone cannot repair. He calls it the “tired-but-wired” downside: extra stimulant working via the system, however the substance behind cognitive drive remains to be depleted. Tom attracts the excellence cleanly: caffeine helps alertness and a wired state, whereas choline helps the dialed-in readability and focus that drives precise efficiency.

18:00 – The 2015 Focus Research and Cholinergic Signaling

A 2015 examine printed in Scientific Experiences examined younger adults on a visuomotor point-and-click activity: a goal bouncing throughout a display screen, with topics aiming as near heart as attainable.[1] The group receiving roughly 800mg of choline outperformed the placebo group on concentrating on accuracy. The researchers additionally tracked pupillary constriction as an goal marker of cholinergic exercise (when the mind has higher acetylcholine availability, pupils constrict measurably), and the constriction correlated with the efficiency enhancements.

Tom notes the examine used choline bitartrate and confirmed onset inside roughly 20 minutes, which inserts the pre-workout timing window. The mechanism is okay motor coordination by way of the neuromuscular junction, not a obscure basic cognitive enhance. The studied dose was 800mg of elemental choline, which interprets to 2g of VitaCholine®, value understanding for anybody constructing their very own choline stack.

19:00 – GHOST Legend V4: VitaCholine® at 1 Gram

Mike holds up a bathtub of GHOST Legend V4 on digital camera to floor the dialog in a real-world software. One scoop delivers 1g of VitaCholine, offering 400mg of elemental choline (73% of the FDA’s each day worth), alongside 300mg pure caffeine, 6g L-citrulline, and a couple of.5g betaine. That doubled the VitaCholine dose from V3’s 500mg and changed Alpha-GPC, a change pushed by world regulatory compliance quite than ingredient high quality considerations. Our devoted VitaCholine® and GHOST Legend V4 deep dive covers the complete dose math and reasoning.

Tom describes the GHOST partnership as one thing Balchem is genuinely pleased with, pointing to the ingredient focus and GHOST’s willingness to put money into a research-backed dose. For the GHOST-side story on V4’s improvement and the Alpha-GPC regulatory context, Dan Lourenço’s Episode #143 covers that perspective straight.

21:00 – L(+)-Bitartrate vs. DL-Bitartrate: Why Isomers Matter

Choline bitartrate exists in two kinds based mostly on the stereochemistry of the tartaric acid provider. L(+)-tartaric acid is the naturally occurring kind, and it is what VitaCholine makes use of. DL-bitartrate is a 50/50 mixture of L- and D-forms, typical of synthetically produced tartaric acid. The D-form does not match the physique’s receptors the way in which the L-form does. Tom makes use of the analogy of attempting to suit your proper hand right into a left-handed glove.

Past absorption effectivity, research have documented crystallization considerations related to greater D-form concentrations.[2][3] This will likely partially clarify points in older high-dose security research: if the check materials was DL-bitartrate quite than pure L-form, the D-fraction might account for among the points. Tom notes that natural-origin sourcing via wine manufacturing sidesteps the issue completely, since nature produces solely the L(+) kind.

26:15 – Protected Dosing, Higher Limits, and Genetic Elements

The tolerable higher consumption degree for choline is 3.5g per day. The very best dietary consumption teams in out there research got here in round 800mg, so supplemental quantities above typical dietary ranges aren’t uncommon for folks with greater cognitive or bodily calls for. Tom frames particular person wants as situation-dependent: athletes, pregnant girls, and postmenopausal girls all have considerably elevated necessities in comparison with sedentary adults.

One underappreciated variable is SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms), genetic variants affecting how effectively the physique metabolizes choline. Analysis from choline scientist Dr. Steven Zeisel at UNC Chapel Hill appeared particularly at how frequent these variants are within the basic inhabitants, discovering a significant proportion of people that want extra choline merely due to genetic inefficiency in processing it. Mixed with the 90% dietary shortfall determine, it means that most individuals have some hole to fill, and a subset have a considerably bigger one.

31:15 – Choline, Betaine, and Nitric Oxide

“Magnesium bisglycinate” on the label does not assure high quality. Albion® Minerals’ TRAACS® chelate is the one kind backed by medical trials displaying 3–6x higher absorption than oxide — with zero GI misery.

Choline’s metabolic function extends past the mind and neuromuscular junction. Tom describes a pathway the place choline breaks right down to betaine, which converts homocysteine (a pro-oxidant amino acid) into methionine. That conversion issues as a result of homocysteine scavenges nitric oxide from the bloodstream.[4][5][6] Satisfactory choline helps hold homocysteine in test, which in flip helps nitric oxide availability, blood vessel dilation, and nutrient supply to working muscle mass.

Tom notes this connection is a part of why GHOST Legend V4 pairs 1g of VitaCholine with 2.5g of betaine (trimethylglycine): the 2 compounds reinforce one another via the identical methylation pathway. For athletes targeted on coaching efficiency and pump, the interplay between choline and nitric oxide physiology provides a significant layer to the ingredient past cognition alone.

34:15 – Albion® Minerals: The Science of Chelation

Chelation mimics how minerals seem in crops: a protecting molecular construction shields the mineral via the higher digestive tract till it reaches the small gut, the place absorption is highest. Albion® makes use of two glycine molecules to kind this construction, with the mineral centered between them like an infinity image on the crossing level. This protects the mineral towards each early degradation and anti-nutrients like phytates and oxalates, which bind unprotected minerals earlier than they attain the absorption website. See our Albion® Minerals deep dive for the complete technical background.

Inorganic mineral salts like magnesium oxide launch the mineral greater within the digestive system, the place interference is extra doubtless and gastrointestinal unintended effects are frequent at greater doses. The chelated kind avoids that by delivering the mineral intact to the proper absorption level. Tom summarizes it as mimicking nature: crops defend minerals in advanced constructions exactly as a result of that is how the physique has developed to soak up them.

39:15 – Magnesium Bisglycinate: Deficiency, Bioavailability, and Sleep

Albion Minerals presents 5 magnesium bisglycinate chelate kinds — from 8% taste-free to 18% buffered granular — every carrying TRAACS validation, EFSA constructive opinion, and Non-GMO Challenge Verified standing for formulators who want documented high quality.

About 60% of the inhabitants does not meet ample magnesium consumption, although that quantity is troublesome to substantiate exactly as a result of serum magnesium is a poor proxy for whole-body standing. Mike provides the soil high quality context: a number of research have documented declining mineral content material in produce over many years, pushed by steady cropping with out ample soil alternative. The sensible upshot: consuming “sufficient” greens by quantity does not assure assembly magnesium wants on the ranges crops contained a technology in the past.

Past absorption, magnesium bisglycinate’s construction delivers an incidental profit: the glycine molecules used because the chelate help GABA signaling and correlate with greater melatonin ranges in analysis. Tom confirms Balchem has explored this in sleep-support purposes, discovering a relationship between mixed magnesium and glycine consumption and improved melatonin manufacturing. That mechanism explains why magnesium bisglycinate turned the go-to kind for nighttime stacks, and it helps greater than 300 enzymatic processes within the physique throughout sleep and restoration.

42:45 – High quality Verification: FT-IR Testing and the Albion Model

Balchem stored the Albion® title after the 2016 acquisition as a result of it carried many years of hard-won fairness: analysis by the Ashmead household, over 150 printed research, and a Gold Medallion Program that educated manufacturers and shoppers to acknowledge the mark as a sign of verified chelate high quality. That model recognition was a part of what made the acquisition invaluable within the first place.

The technical spine of that status is FT-IR (Fourier Remodel Infrared spectroscopy), which confirms a chelate is “totally reacted” quite than simply blended. Merely mixing glycine powder with magnesium oxide produces elemental quantities that look right on a label, however the protecting chelate construction will not kind with out the precise chemical response. FT-IR catches that distinction. The apply of mixing and calling it chelated is frequent sufficient within the trade that NOW Meals flagged it straight of their 2022 Amazon audit:

47:30 – The NOW Meals Amazon Audit: Why Branded Components Matter

71% of vitamin K2 dietary supplements fail high quality testing. Balchem’s K2VITAL® delivers 99.7% all-trans MK-7, verified by third-party labs twice a 12 months.

In December 2022, NOW Meals printed outcomes from testing magnesium glycinate merchandise offered on Amazon, discovering widespread label-claim failures amongst third-party manufacturers. One passage stood out clearly: NOW explicitly said it didn’t check most merchandise claiming to make use of Albion Minerals, as a result of these merchandise “are recognized to be high-quality and specialist in totally reacted magnesium glycinate.” That exclusion was a significant trade acknowledgment: Albion’s high quality standing was so effectively established that testing it was thought of pointless. Learn the complete NOW Meals methodology and outcomes.

Tom and Mike each word that Amazon tightened its label accuracy necessities in response to the audit. The broader level Tom attracts: branded components create accountability that generic powders do not have. Placing “Albion” on a label means shopping for from Balchem and dealing with the results of any discrepancy. The model title works as each a client sign and an enforcement mechanism.

50:45 – K2VITAL® and Different Albion® Minerals

Tom provides a first-look overview of K2VITAL®, introduced into Balchem’s portfolio via the Kappa Bioscience acquisition in 2022. Produced in Norway, K2VITAL reaches 99.7% all-trans MK-7, the biologically lively configuration. The cis kind absorbs poorly by comparability, making the trans-to-cis ratio a significant high quality metric. Tom’s useful framing: K2 directs calcium from the bloodstream into the bones, supporting wholesome skeletal mineral standing. Our K2VITAL® deep dive covers the complete science, together with the Norway origin story and what all-trans purity means in apply.

On the broader Albion mineral portfolio, Tom walks via the “massive 4”: calcium (with DimaCal® and Calci-Ok® as specialised kinds for particular purposes, together with Calci-Ok® for dairy), zinc (ZincMax, launched throughout COVID with the next elemental zinc proportion than prior-generation chelates), and Ferrochel® for iron.

Ferrochel® holds a distinction few components earn: the World Well being Group has cited it as a mannequin for chelated iron in meals fortification applications. Balchem provides Ferrochel in authorities sugar fortification initiatives, together with a program in Guatemala, getting absorbable iron right into a dietary staple for populations the place iron deficiency is frequent.

1:00:00 – Trying Forward: Choline Science and Longevity

Tom factors to an ongoing examine on the College of Vermont on choline in postmenopausal girls, performed utilizing fMRI evaluation. The science context: girls have two pathways for endogenous choline manufacturing, together with the PEMT pathway, which runs via estrogen and produces DHA-rich phosphatidylserine. When estrogen drops throughout menopause, so does that whole manufacturing route, making a a lot sharper choline hole than males expertise. Tom connects the noticed mind fog that many postmenopausal girls report back to this drop in endogenous choline manufacturing, whereas noting clearly that that is his knowledgeable interpretation quite than established science.

The broader framing Tom closes with is longevity in its useful sense: not extending lifespan, however sustaining the bodily and cognitive capability to do the belongings you’re doing now, for longer. That is the place ongoing VitaCholine analysis is headed, and the place he sees the best progress alternative for the model.