As consumers become more educated about dietary supplements, searches for specific ingredients like creatine, NAD and choline are becoming more prominent, suggesting that consumers are aware of the purpose and benefits of these ingredients.
Ahead of the inaugural Nutraingredients Nutra Healthspan Summit this fall, Emily Safian-Demers, director of Insights at Front Row, shares the research and strategy firm’s key findings, research methodology and implications for the growing brain health consumer market in this Q&A.
Nutraingredients: Can you explain your research methodology?
Emily Safian-Demers: We use a combination of quantitative and qualitative analysis. We ingest massive datasets of search volume and revenue estimates through our proprietary technology, Catapult, and look at those two signals to track how interest and demand are trending within a category. This tells us what is happening on Amazon: What terms are experiencing rapid growth in search? Which categories are seeing growing demand? Do those two things match up, or is interest not converting to sales? We then pair that data with desk and consumer research to identify and map the cultural trends and zeitgeist shifts that are informing that on-channel activity. Taken together, we can decode not just what is happening on Amazon, but why.
NI: How is brain health showing up on high-growth platforms like Amazon?
ESD: For a platform like Amazon, most of the recent interest in brain health is being captured in the Vitamin, Mineral and Supplement (VMS) category. We’re seeing strong and rapid growth in interest for supplements and ingredients that support cognition, as well as for the functional benefits that users hope to receive from these products. Popular searches include terms like “memory,” focus," “attention” and “brain fog.”
NI: What findings stand out to you the most? Any surprises or unexpected findings?
ESD: What stands out to me most is the ways in which people are searching for brain health support on Amazon. While we’re seeing high volume of benefit searches—that is to say, what people hope to achieve by using these products—we’re also seeing a rise in ingredients. Search volume for ingredients like creatine, NAD+ and choline have all increased in 2025. This tells us that consumers are becoming more educated about their supplements and are bringing that education with them onto platforms like Amazon—they know the purpose and benefits of specific ingredients and are searching for those ingredients by name.
NI: Are there brain health trends that you’re seeing among certain age groups and/or genders?
ESD: Yes! Creatine, for example, is an ingredient that is increasingly being touted as a brain-health-boosting ingredient and is seeing rising search volume on Amazon. But, notably, “creatine for women” is what’s driving that volume. This aligns with growing interest around women’s health at large and better understanding of the link between memory, brain fog, and perimenopause and menopause.
NI: How can you tell people are searching for creatine for cognition vs muscle health?
ESD: We can’t know for certain what people are thinking when they’re searching on Amazon, nor can we say how they use the product once it’s delivered. But we do have some clues: reviews can give more detail into how consumers are using the products they buy on Amazon in the form of reviews, and our qualitative research into conversations and cultural shifts that are gaining traction off Amazon offer even more insight.
NI: Are consumers more educated than say 5 years ago? If so, what do you attribute this to?
ESD: Absolutely. I mentioned earlier that Amazon shoppers are searching in high volume by ingredient, and this is something that’s happening across categories; we’re seeing it in skincare and haircare as well. I attribute this to the rising mass of information that consumers have access to and are confronted with every day. Today, you can open Instagram or TikTok and see a dermatologist discussing the scientific details of a skincare product and then scroll past a nutritionist breaking down the vital nutrients the body needs to thrive, and so on. Information that people could typically only receive in a doctor’s office—and even then, it may not be explained—they can now get on their couches. While there are very valid concerns about the accuracy of some of that information circulating across screens, there is no doubt that consumers’ access to information has been democratized, arming them with more knowledge than they had 5 to 10 years ago.
NI: What does the popularity of products like Neuro Gum, Mints and Drops tell you about the consumer?
ESD: It tells me that consumers are interested in novel forms of supplements—ones that don’t require them to carry around a bottle of pills, for example, or wait for a meal. Instead, they’re looking for seamless forms for a boost of energy or focus, for example, that they can easily get while on the go. These new forms allow for a more seamless integration into daily habits and reflect a shift in how consumers think about their supplement intake. Consumers are integrating wellness into every step of their daily lives and are looking for supplement formats that facilitate that.
