CBD Dosage Calculation is a Process But You Can Start Here

THC always seems to overshadow its chemical cousin CBD. Even research into determining adequate dosage seems to favor THC. While more official investigation into measuring doses of both components is integral, there seem to be far more reports and anecdotal guides on THC dosage when compared to CBD dosage. Today, we’ll attempt to shed some light on ideal ways to gauge a proper CBD dosage for whatever ails you. Since we are not medical doctors, this is by no means a suggestion of treatment. As with any medicines, CBD should be discussed with an open minded healthcare professional prior to use.

The Benefits of CBD

While THC may get all the glamour for being a psychoactive component, CBD is a highly important cannabinoid in its own right and offers its own distinct benefits including treatment of issues as diverse as epilepsy, schizophrenia, chronic pain and sleep disorders. Your average strain has a higher ratio of THC to CBD though you can find higher CBD strains or use extracts of pure CBD to completely bypass the psychoactive effects of THC.

Safety First When Experimenting with CBD

Before we delve into dosages, we just want to take a moment to again advise that you consult a medical professional before using CBD. Determining the best dose of CBD can often take a bit of trial and error. Fortunately, one of America’s leading cannabis testing labs, CannLabs, has done research supporting the relative safety of CBD in that no lethal dose of CBD has ever been recorded. However, it’s always better to stay on the safe side when doing trial-and-error experiments with medicines; even those as safe as CBD.

Factors That Can Influence Your Ideal CBD Dosage

Since so little research has been done into establishing CBD dosage, determining the best dose for your specific condition can be a bit tricky. Don’t be surprised if you don’t get it on the nose the first time. There are a multitude of factors to consider when gauging CBD dosage including:

• reason for taking CBD (specific issue)
• seriousness of the issue/stage of illness
• quality of the CBD oil
• potency of the CBD oil
• body weight
• CBD tolerance
• metabolism
• diet

Many of the above factors can fluctuate and, in most cases, your CBD dosage will fluctuate accordingly. There’s a good chance that your dosage could always be in motion. Keeping a detailed journal of your results can help you to adeptly determine your dosage as your condition changes.

How Methods of Administration Affect the Impact of CBD

How you choose to take your CBD can also have its own effects including how quickly you feel results. CBD can be eaten or smoked but patients looking to get the most out of their medicine often choose to administer drops of CBD oil under the tongue so that it is readily absorbed into the bloodstream as opposed to digested or taken in through the lungs. The filtration of your lungs and digestive system is such that you can actually lose some of the benefits of CBD if you use pills and edibles or smoke a CBD product whereas directly absorbing CBD into the bloodstream retains its desired potency. Vaping CBD as well as using CBD patches for your skin are other methods that allow you to harness a greater percentage of the component’s benefits than if you were to eat or smoke it.

Suggestions for General CBD Dosage

While very little research has been done into the best CBD dosages for specific issues, some minimal investigation and anecdotal evidence has contributed to some good places to start when tweaking the dose that works for your situation. According to Herb, the optimal dosage for common issues is as follows:

• General Health: 2.5 – 15mg of CBD daily, taken orally
• Chronic Pain: 2.5 – 20mg of CBD daily, taken orally
• Sleep Disorders: 40 – 160mg of CBD daily, taken orally

The Mayo Clinic expounds upon this with these additional general dosage suggestions:

• Epilepsy: 200 – 300mg of CBD daily, taken orally
• Motion problems as a result of Huntington’s Disease: 10mg per kg of CBD daily, taken orally for 6 weeks
• Appetite Stimulants for Cancer patients: 1mg of CBD in addition to 2.5mg of THC daily, taken orally for 6 weeks
• Schizophrenia: 40 – 1280mg of CBD daily, taken orally
• Symptoms derived from multiple sclerosis: extracts containing 2.5 – 120mg of a THC/CBD combo daily, taken orally for 2 – 15 weeks
• Glaucoma: 20 – 40mg of CBD taken under the tongue (doses exceeding 40mg could actually worsen eye pressure)

As you can see, even these suggested dosages cover a wide range reinforcing the fluid nature of CBD dosage. If you’re looking for something more general, the website CBD Oil Review devised a standard serving size of 25mg of CBD taken twice daily. They reached this number after reviewing several CBD-based products and finding a necessity for a standard.

Calculating your Own CBD Dosage

The folks at Honest Marijuana took it a step further by actually devising their own CBD dosage calculator. Using a table that they created (pictured below), they’ve offered a fairly straightforward formula to allow you an ideal starting point for your CBD experimentation, taking both your weight and severity of your condition into account: The steps to Honest Marijuana’s formula are detailed as follows:

• Determine the serving size of your CBD oil by consulting the product packaging.
• Consult Honest Marijuana’s chart above to determine a suggested starting dosage in mg.
• Again consulting the product packaging, divide the packaging’s serving size in mg by the package’s serving size in drops. (The example Honest Marijuana gives shows the product stating a serving size of CBD oil as 10 drops which would contain a total of 25mg of CBD. Therefore, to determine the CBD content of a single drop, you would simply divide 25mg by 10 drops to get the number of 2.5mg per drop. Simply put: 25mg/10 drops = 2.5mg per drop).
• Take the dosage suggested by Honest Marijuana’s chart and divide it by the mg per drop serving size you just calculated in the previous step. (For example, if you weigh 120 lbs. and are experiencing a medium amount of pain, the chart points to a dosage of 15mg. Combined with the example in the previous step, you would then divide the 15mg suggestion by the 2.5mg per drop serving size to get 6 drops of CBD oil. Simply put: 15mg/2.5mg serving size = 6 drops per serving).

That’s a nice even number, but if you end up with a decimal, rounding to a whole drop is the ideal solution. Remember, this is pretty much just going to be your launching point for experimentation. Most sources recommend somewhere around the 3 day mark for a trial of a specific dose but obviously if the CBD oil is having an adverse effect on you, you’d want to drop the dosage or discontinue use immediately. In any case, it’s always a good idea to skew low if you skew at all. Most patients will agree that it’s easier to build from a dose that’s too low than it is to pull back from a dose that’s too high. It’s also worth noting that a higher CBD dosage doesn’t necessarily equate to a greater impact. Some conditions, such as anxiety, will find the effects of CBD dulled if the dosage is too high or too low whereas just the right dose will have thorough effect. However, other conditions, such as epilepsy, seem to have no cap on effects with higher dosages. Still, in most cases, you’re going to be looking for a dose somewhere in the middle as your optimum. And since your body is constantly changing, you can expect your CBD dosage to change with it.