I tried gummy shrooms without psychedelics that promised to get me focused like a

I tried a “functional-mushroom” supplement containing a fungus used in traditional Chinese medicine.
Gwella’s founder said he began experimenting with mushrooms to create an alternative to Adderall.
I felt slightly more focused 45 minutes after consuming the functional-mushroom gummy.

As psychedelic mushrooms continue to gain interest from investors and researchers, some companies are experimenting with “functional mushrooms,” fungi with properties beyond just nutrition, such as reducing stress or increasing focus.

Gwella, a Toronto-based wellness startup founded in 2020, is one such company. Last year, Gwella launched a gummy derived from ingredients in lion’s mane, one of a handful of functional mushrooms used in traditional Chinese medicine along with reishi and turkey tail.

Peter Reitano, the founder of Gwella, said he’s been growing functional mushrooms for about a decade. He said Gwella’s chief science officer, Daniel Sanders, began experimenting with lion’s mane while he was in school to replace Adderall as a “study aid.” It gave them the idea to explore the potential of lion’s mane as a natural alternative to improve cognition and increase focus, Reitano added.

Adderall is a widely prescribed drug that combines amphetamine and dextroamphetamine, two stimulants, to improve focus for people with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. While stimulants seem to be effective for about 70% of patients, Adderall can come with serious risks like addiction and worsening of existing heart conditions.

“We wanted to create a really healthy product that had short-term benefits — i.e., focus, cognition, energy — but also had these long-term compounding benefits with regular use through functional mushrooms like lion’s mane,” Reitano said in an interview with Insider.

I tried Gwella’s gummy product, called Mojo, to see if it would help my focus, and asked an external expert to assess whether they thought the short-lived effects I felt were caused by the lion’s mane, other ingredients, or a placebo effect.