Adaptogens are everywhere now. From snacks to coffee add-ins to miraculous-sounding gummies, it’s difficult to go anywhere without seeing something about the benefits of CBD or mushrooms. Some people swear by their supplements, claiming that various adaptogenic products help them sleep better, feel calmer or be more productive. And as they grow in visibility and popularity, companies are finding new use cases for these natural mood enhancers.

Paused.com’s products are specifically designed for people going through the menopause, offering an array of calming, sleep-supportive, focus and beauty-related supplements. Each product is made in the UK, with an eco-friendly ethos and a mission to target the difficulties many people face during this time of life.

Their lion’s mane ‘Ultra Focus’ capsules aim to target the brain fog that many suffer from during menopause, but are suitable for anyone struggling with concentration and focus. Containing 16,000mg of lion’s mane (from the fruiting body, the active element of the fungi), Ginkgo Biloba, pantothenic acid and iodine, each jar contains 60 capsules – a 30-day supply.

These are not particularly enticing caps at first glance – or rather, at first sniff. Their beige, powdery contents have a musty whiff that’s a little affronting once the protective seal is torn away, and a taste to match. It makes taking the pills less than appealing at first, and may put off some first-time lion’s mane experimenters. After a few days, you can get past the initial dusty earthiness, but when so many vitamins and vitamin-adjacent products taste neutral, or even actively good, this does put Ultra Focus at a slight disadvantage. That said, the tastes of functional mushrooms like lion’s mane are known to be difficult to mask in many cases – the flavour may be less of a faux pas on Paused.com’s part, and more a hazard of the game.

What really matters, though, is whether the purported benefits have any weight to them. After taking the Ultra Focus capsules for a month, the answer is… maybe. As someone who often has difficulty staying concentrated on a task (and who is constantly chasing that hallowed ‘flow state’), it’s easy to hope that these kinds of supplements will be a magic bullet, inducing envious levels of focus and the ability to race through tasks at a superhuman pace. Of course, this is not the case (or I haven’t found the right pill yet). However, weighing up the days I felt really ‘in the zone’ at work against the days I was frustrated with my lack of consistent attention, there was a slight uptick in the former when taking Ultra Focus. Maybe there’s a placebo element there, but particularly when I first started taking the capsules, I felt more on top of my game than I had in a while. Over the month I spent testing the supplement, things were up and down, but it’s hard to determine the extent to which other factors played into that.

I’ve tried a few different adaptogenic products over recent months, and Paused.com’s Ultra Focus is one of the best I’ve tested so far. While the flavour may be off-putting at first, that reaction quickly wears off, and the benefits, while not necessarily consistent, are noticeable. If you’re struggling with brain fog or focus, it’s worth giving them a go, whether you’re going through the menopause or not.

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Lucy Carter is a London-based writer with a strong interest in the arts, entertainment and culture spaces. She can generally be found spending too much time and money at food markets and coffee shops, or going on long walks around the city. To read more of her work, take a look at her Substack and Muck Rack and follow her on Twitter @lucyllcarter.

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