CBD forums are flooded with the question ‘how many drops of CBD oil should I take?” Thousands would vouch for the success of CBD, backed up by its health benefits, ease of use and eco-friendliness. However, most of them struggle at recommending the correct dosage.
The problem is that FDA has not suggested a Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) for CBD. The result is different brands coming up their dosages, often not backed with any evidence.
The dose depends on many variables, including, but not limited to the body weight, body composition, tolerance, health condition, and its severity.
This article will discuss the common dosage issues related to several different health conditions. The many benefits, myths surrounding CBD and its legality can be read here.
Can You Overdose CBD Oil?
The first question is, ‘can you overdose on CBD oil?’ Fortunately, it takes a lot of CBD above the usual dosage amounts to get an overdose. For example, an average adult male would take 1/8th of a teaspoon of CBD for one dose, while it needs 33 teaspoons to cause an overdose. That is over 250 times the regular use, so one must try hard to hit that overdose range.
Overdosing is not a real problem with CBD, as it almost never happens. But that is no reason for you to start at higher doses. The problem with CBD is that cannabinoids are naturally found in the human body. When you take CBD from outside the body, the natural production of cannabinoids go down as a result. This is named development of tolerance and overtime, you will need higher doses to achieve the same effects. Therefore, in order to limit tolerance, always start with the lowest possible dose.
CBD Oil Dosage: General Recommendations
Before you decide on the best way to take your CBD, one vital point to remember is that you must always know how much CBD is there in a given product. If the exact CBD amount is not mentioned on the label, the chances are that the amounts may differ significantly between each product, that they find it hard to keep it constant. Always go for brands with a good reputation backed up by third party quality assurance.
You can use a proper CBD oil dosage calculator to decide on the dose you need. There are a few critical points to remember about CBD usage.
- Different people react to CBD differently. Therefore you have to understand what is the best dosage for you.
- If you take more CBD than you need, there are chances that the body will adjust to the excess amounts and there will be no benefit of it. That is why it is always recommended to start with a smaller dose and increase it once every 3–7 days.
- You have to be regular with CBD use. Use it daily or several times per day. Not sticking to a constant dose can also force the body to develop tolerance and reduce potential benefits.
- Before you start using, determine what you need to achieve.
What influences the CBD oil dosage?
Form and type of CBD
Tincture
The common advice of having one dropper per day leaves out the fact that different brands have different concentrations of CBD in their tinctures. One drop from one brand will have twice as much CBD as another brand.
So you can do a little calculation. Estimating that the dropper holds 1 ml of liquid, you can then calculate how much CBD is there in one dropper volume. If the tincture is 30 ml and the total CBD amount is 1500 mg, then one dropper holds (1500/30) 50mg of CBD. So if your dose is 50 mg you can take one dropper at a time.
Oil
The same as tinctures, CBD oils have different CBD concentrations. Therefore you can use the same calculation as for tinctures to decide on the number of drops you need to take to achieve your desired dose.
Capsule
If you have to use a precisely measured amount and don’t want to calculate, then the most effective way is to use capsules. If the recommended dose is 15–25 mg of CBD, then you can use either 20 mg or 25 mg capsules. It is the simplest and the most straightforward way of measuring your dose.
Isolate
CBD isolates come in the form of a solid white powder. The isolate is then mixed in a solution to create either oils or tinctures. You can then calculate the dose based on the given concentration as you would do with any other form, like tincture or oil.
Concentrate
CBD concentrates come in full spectrum forms, which means there is a collection of other cannabinoids and terpenes in these concentrations.
Calculating the dosage is a little tricky as you need to consider three different factors. First, you need to find the volume in the bottle and multiply it by the percentage of CBD to find out CBD concentration. Then you need to find the volume of the dropper and find how much CBD concentration is there in a unit volume of the dropper. This way you can calculate the number of droppers you need to get the required CBD amount.
Edible
CBD edibles are popular over raw oils since they do not have the natural earthly taste. The edibles like gummies have fixed dosage and therefore straightforward to use. Usual doses range from 5–100 mg depending on the brand. So if you need to take 10 mg of CBD per day, you can simply eat a gummy that has 10 mg CBD in it.
Vapors
You cannot measure the smoke, in the same manner, as you would measure the dosage in a tincture. You will use one dropper to fill the tank, and that amount is the concentration you will use per one cycle. Since you do not take the same size of puff each time, the dose can vary significantly. However, if a single tank holds 50 mg of CBD and you are advised to use 100 mg per day, then you have to refill the tanks twice to gain your daily requirement.
Topical
Topical products like creams and gels will not have a specific dosage as it always depends on how much you apply. For these kinds of products, you need to be more concerned with the frequency as you may have to use it once daily to once every few hours.
Body weight
Body weight is one of the most critical factors of your dosage. You can use 1–6 mg of CBD per every 10 pounds of body weight. For example, if your body weight is 100 pounds, you can use 10–60 mg of CBD depending on your condition.
However, body weight should not be the only factor considered when choosing your dose. For example, you may have a friend who is the same weight as you. They may be taking 50 mg of CBD twice per day, but that does not mean you can use the same. You may have to use either a lower or higher dosage depending on your body type, your health condition, and its severity.
The severity of the health status
Severity is the other main factor you must consider when deciding the correct dose for you. For example, you can take 5–10 mg of CBD if the condition is mild, increase that to 10–20 mg if it is moderate and go as high as 20–40 mg if the disease is severe. However, it would be better if you also kept in mind that this depends on the health condition as well. You can’t use the same dose you use for chronic pain when you use it for cancer or epilepsy.
Tolerance Level
At the same time, CBD actions depend on the endocannabinoid system. This system of neurotransmitters and receptors have their regulatory mechanism. Therefore, when you use CBD for some time, the system would develop resistance to it by downregulating the receptors. Consequently, it would need more CBD concentration to achieve the same effects you had when you first started using CBD.
Consult your physician
You better consult your physician if you have any other preexisting health conditions. If you use any other drugs – which you feel that may interact with CBD – you should always consult your physician before starting CBD.
CBD oil dosage by a health condition
- With the opioid addiction and dependency going up, CBD is becoming popular for chronic pain. The recommended dose is 2.5–20 mg per day. Since CBD is not addictive, it can be used over relatively longer periods.
- For inflammation and arthritis, you can use doses between 25–50 mg per day.
- CBD oil dosage for sleep can vary from 40–160 mg, depending on your tolerance and body weight.
- CBD oil for COPD dosage depends mostly on the severity of the condition, and people settle for doses between 10–90 mg of CBD per day.
- The CBD oil dosage for diabetes depends on the severity, and for mild condition, people use 40–50 mg of CBD. When the diabetes condition is severe you can go for higher doses as much as 100–150 mg.
- CBD is good for anxiety as you can use a tincture or a vapor in most places for quick relief. The recommended CBD oil dosage for anxiety is 25–50 mg.
- For depression, you can start with 5–10 mg of CBD and increase from there until relief.
- For cancer you need to use higher concentrations. However, since there are other powerful drugs in use, you need a proper medical advice before using CBD for cancer.
- The recommended ADHD dosage is around 20–25 mg per day.
- For epilepsy, one can use a dose of 200–300 mg of CBD per day. This amount of CBD is a very high concentration and therefore one needs a proper medical recommendation before use.
- Children tolerate CBD well. And that is why it can be used for ADHD, epilepsy, and pains in children. Usual CBD oil dosage for a child is 1–6 mg per every 10 pounds.
- CBD is given for dogs for anxiety and pains. For those who are wondering how much CBD oil should I give my dog, the usual dose is 1 mg per every 4 pounds of weight, depending on the severity of the condition. The CBD oil dosage for cats is more or less the same to CBD for dogs dosage. Oils and capsules are the most common when deciding the CBD oil for dogs dosage. For more information, you can refer to a CBD oil for dogs dosage chart.
Summary
Deciding on the correct CBD dosage can be a little tricky, but the good news is that there are CBD calculators developed to help you calculate the correct dosage with ease. The need for such calculations has come up because there are no clear guidelines set up by the FDA, and the doses can vary significantly depending on the body type and the disease severity.
Always check the concentration of CBD in the product you use. Calculate against the body weight, adjusted for the health condition and severity. Start in small doses and increase slowly. When in doubt, always seek proper medical advice.
CBD is used for several different health conditions. It is not only for adults but for children as well as for your pet dogs and cats too. While overdoses are extremely rare with a broad range between average doses and overdose limits, stick to lower doses to avoid developing tolerance.