Stress management could be OTC's next big-ticket seller

Drug Store News,  May 20, 2002  by Michael Johnsen

• E-mail
• Print
• Link

Stress management could be the next big thing in natural health, natural pharmacy expert Jim LaValle, R.Ph., C.C.N., and chief clinical officer of Intramedicine, told attendees of the fourth annual Drug Store News/National Association of Chain Drug Stores Natural Health conference, held March 26 to 28 in Washington's J.W. Marriott hotel.

Certainly, the category--not to mention the consumer--could use the help. With the growth engines having stalled in natural health for some time now, retailers and suppliers gathered in the nation's capitol to find a way to drive sales in a category that only a few years ago didn't need very much help at all.

According to LaValle, helping consumers manage stress could be the ticket.

The body's response to stress--the release of certain stress-triggred hormones, such as cortisol--depletes key nutrients, including magnesium, essential B vitamins an antioxidants, to name just a few. These nutrition deficiencies, caused by the body's response to stress, can contribute to bone loss, impact insulin resistance, impair glucose tolerance and increase sodium and water retention, ultimately leading to serious health conditions, including cardiovascular disease, arthritis, obesity and diabetes, LaValle noted. This can feed a vicious cycle by further blocking the absorption of these very same nutrients.

While the single-letter vitamins are a fairly well-developed segment of the natural health business the business in magnesium is far less evolved in drug stores, and is an excellent opportunity to grow the category. Magnesium supplements only pulled in $8.2 million in the drug channel for the 52 weeks ending Feb. 3, according to Information Resources Inc.

And according to LaValle, the consumer knows very little about magnesium's role in the body.

Because we tend to overeat when we are stressed, because we tend to eat things that are bad for us and because the body's response to stress compromises the body's ability to metabolize fats and sugars, there are some very natural synergies in marketing stress management and weight loss.

LaValle argued that consumers are addressing the observable symptoms--weight gain--and not treating the underlying problems exasperated by stress: insulin resistance, muscle loss and glucose intolerance.

LaValle anchored an agenda that included the presentation of consumer research on the beliefs and purchasing habits of pharmacy patients shopping the natural health aisles, as well as another study on pharmacists' views on counseling patients on natural health--both of which were conducted exclusively for Drug Store News.

Rob Eder, Drug Store News director of front-store categories, urged conference attendees not to give up on the category, which is the highest volume business in the OTC quadrant of the store. Eder described a business in dietary supplements that has eclipsed traditional drug store mainstays such as analgesics and cough-cold in sales.

Results of Drug Store News' first-ever survey of pharmacy patients' views on dietary supplement usage turned up some interesting findings regarding the number of former users who stopped taking supplements. Some 72 percent described themselves as "lapsed supplement users," translating into a huge marketing opportunity to recapture that lost business at the pharmacy counter. While most pharmacists would admit that they are overworked, most would not stop making recommendations to create more time to fill prescriptions. Complete survey results will be published in the June 17 issue of Drug Store News.

In all, the conference hosted more than 60 attendees, including representatives from 12 retail chains. While supplier-retailer interaction always has been part of the agenda, the program this year featured pre-scheduled business meetings.

COPYRIGHT 2002 Reproduced with permission of the copyright holder. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited without permission.
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning