Sales of CBD products have skyrocketed in the last few years. They’re not prescription products, but they’re widely available in the UK, the US, and other Western nations as “food supplements.”
The popularity of CBD (short for cannabidiol) is easily explained. An enormous number of apparent medical benefits have been linked to the substance’s use, even though the evidence hasn’t yet convinced governments to approve CBD as a general prescription treatment.
CBD products are used differently according to the form they take, of course, and that creates a big problem: how do you know how much cannabidiol to use?
There are other, equally important problems.
- The amount of cannabidiol that appears to be effective varies widely depending on the condition a user wants to treat.
- CBD’s effectiveness is dependent on many other factors, including a user’s weight, body metabolism, preexisting medical conditions, and medication regime.
Most products have “suggested doses” on their labels or packaging, but those recommended doses don’t take any of the factors we’ve just mentioned into account.
In response, “CBD dosage calculators” have popped up all over the Internet, most of them on vendors’ websites. They purport to help people figure out the specific dose that should work for them. Unfortunately, most aren’t overly helpful. Bottom line: these calculators can be helpful for people who want a general feel for dosages, but aren’t accurate enough to rely on. The best approach for anyone trying or using a CBD product is to consult their doctor or another healthcare professional for specific advice that applies to their individual medical situation. Here’s a deeper dive into the subject. CBD is a non-intoxicating plant compound found in cannabis and hemp plants. It’s in a class of compounds known as cannabinoids; there are more than 100 of them in those plants, with psychoactive THC (tetrahydrocannabinol) the cannabinoid that most people are familiar with. The cannabidiol used to make CBD products is sourced from hemp. That’s because the plants have high levels of CBD content and very little THC, not enough to impair users in any way. (Cannabis, by comparison, contains lots of THC and small amounts of CBD — which is why the marijuana harvested from cannabis makes users high.) The primary reason CBD products have become so popular is the laundry list of apparent health and wellness benefits discovered in preliminary research studies. This is just a sample. CBD delivers these apparent effects by interacting with the body’s endocannabinoid system (ECS), which controls many crucial functions like thought, memory, sleep, pain, appetite, inflammation, and immunity. The studies that have uncovered the workings of cannabidiol in the body and its seemingly impressive ability to help ease so many medical conditions and disorders have made another key discovery. The amount of CBD that appears to be effective varies dramatically, depending on the health issues being treated. No one has the “right answer” to that question. Research into CBD’s apparent benefits is still in its preliminary stages, and cannabidiol hasn’t been approved for any medical uses (except the few types of epilepsy we’ve mentioned), so experts haven’t even tried to reach a consensus on appropriate dosages. There are a few benchmarks that some find helpful, though. Conventional wisdom suggests starting with doses between 5mg and 20mg of cannabidiol daily and increasing as necessary, and many producers recommend starting with doses higher than that. Other recommendations and suggestions differ considerably. For example: It’s important to understand, however, that cannabidiol is well-tolerated by humans and is only associated with minor side effects, usually only experienced by new users or those who take extremely high doses. One more key fact: several research reviews have concluded that people can take as much as 1500mg of CBD per day without ill effects. Bear that number in mind as we move on. The daily doses of cannabidiol that researchers have reported to be effective for various medical uses may provide a little more guidance for those considering CBD to ease their conditions. As you’ll see, however, the numbers and ranges are all over the map and greatly surpass the maximum dose recommended by the British government. And at least one study, not considered in line with others that have been conducted, used a whopping 900mg per day to effectively treat anxiety. Clearly, these numbers aren’t particularly helpful either. As mentioned briefly in the introduction to this article, vendors rarely provide much assistance. They’re most likely to suggest a dosage like 20, 25, or 50mg once or twice per day, without any consideration of factors like the user’s weight, physical condition, or the issue for which the CBD is being taken. That’s why many turn to the CBD dosage calculators that are readily available online. A few of the dosage calculators you may happen upon by accident are relatively comprehensive. They first ask about the medical condition for which you want to use cannabidiol, then ask questions about your weight and whether you want a small, medium, or large dose, before providing you with a general dose recommendation. Most, however, don’t even ask why you’re going to take CBD. You enter your weight and get a suggested dose that’s no more helpful than the one you’d find on a product label. Since most of these calculators are provided by CBD vendors, they may just send you to the CBD oil they’d like you to buy; a few offer dosage information like milliliters or drops of their recommended oil. None of the available dosage calculators are comprehensive enough to consider your overall health, your body’s metabolism, other medications you’re taking that may interact with cannabidiol, or related factors that could call for a higher or lower dose of CBD than the calculators are programmed to suggest. Since CBD dosing is so complicated and inexact, and it’s dependent on a user’s physical condition and needs, only your doctor or another healthcare professional can come close to providing a knowledgeable recommendation. Cannabidiol can also interact negatively with some common medications — another good reason to speak with your doctor before choosing a dose. Whether you rely on published information, a product label, a dosage calculator, or a doctor, there’s one more dose-related issue to be aware of before taking CBD. You’d think it would be simple once you have a number to work with. Taking 10, 25, or 50mg of CBD should be easy, right? Not exactly. For some CBD products, the process indeed seems to be fairly simple. If you’re planning to take a 10mg CBD gummy, for example, you’d buy a package of them, chew one, and you’d theoretically be done. Here’s the problem, though: even though the candy may contain 10 milligrams of cannabidiol, it must be digested before the CBD is released to do its work — and 80% or more of the cannabidiol can be lost during that process. In short, a 10mg gummy won’t really provide the user with 10mg of CBD. It’s the same story for CBD capsules. It’s even more complicated if you’re using other types of edibles. You may eat just half of a CBD brownie or drink half of a CBD-infused smoothie. That doesn’t necessarily provide half of the promised cannabidiol, because the CBD may not be evenly distributed in the food or beverage. CBD vape dosages are even less exact. How deeply are you inhaling? How often are you hitting the vape? Just because a bottle of CBD vape juice contains 500mg of cannabidiol, there’s essentially no way to be sure how much of the cannabinoid you’re putting into your body. That brings us to CBD oil. It usually comes in a bottle and is administered with a dropper — but most labels only tell you how many milliliters of liquid and milligrams of CBD are in the bottle. They usually don’t mention how many drops would equal 10, 25, or 50 milligrams of cannabidiol. (If you do find a bottle of CBD oil that does that calculation for you, consider yourself lucky. Otherwise, you have to do some math. First, you need to figure out the number most important for administrating CBD oil: milligrams per milliliter, or mg/mL. Divide the number of milligrams of CBD in the bottle by the number of milliliters of liquid, and you’ll know how much cannabidiol is in each milliliter of oil. Most droppers aren’t measured in milliliters, though, so there’s another calculation needed. There are usually 0.05 milliliters of oil in a single drop, so divide the mg/mL number by 0.05, and you’ll know how much CBD is in each drop of your CBD oil. If you have a headache by now, that’s understandable. Here’s the best way to approach CBD dosages. This may not sound like a satisfactory way to use any product you take to help with health and wellness, but remember: using cannabidiol isn’t like taking a prescription medication or even an over-the-counter product. CBD’s apparent benefits haven’t been definitively established, so there are no reliable dosage instructions that doctors or users can rely on. We’ve already provided the best news, however. When most people use CBD responsibly, they can’t overdose on it. Choose a dosage carefully and increase as necessary, and you should have the best chance of receiving the benefits you’re seeking without having to worry about taking too much. We do have to emphasize once more, though, that CBD can interact negatively with some common medications and can be contraindicated for those with a few medical conditions. The best way to protect yourself from rare but unexpected complications is to speak with your doctor before starting with any CBD product.
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The Basics of CBD
How Much CBD Should Users Take?
What Governments and Medical Authorities Say
What Studies Have Shown About CBD Dosages
What About Recommended Dosages on Product Labels?
The Problems with CBD Dosage Calculators
The Difficulty of Using Suggested Dosages
What’s a Poor CBD User to Do?
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