Dr. Dustin Sulak, D.O. and Director of Integ8 Health, said that “some patients effectively use tiny amounts of cannabis while others use incredibly high doses. I’ve seen adult patients achieve therapeutic effects at 1 mg of total cannabinoids per day, while others consume over 2000 mg daily without adverse effects.”

Exact dosing for CBD is hard to predict. There are many factors that can influence exactly what the right does is for you. Let’s consider what these might be.

Weight is one obvious factor. Most drugs are prescribed on a milligram per kilogram (mg/kg) basis. This means that the dose you take depends on your weight. If we use the animal world as an example, you would not expect to give the exact same pill to a cat that you would a lion. In general, the larger you are, the bigger the dose needed. There are some on the web who suggest that a good starting dose for a 200-pound person is 15-25 mg per day, while someone at 150 pounds might do better at 15-25 mg per day.

Another factor to consider is the age of the person. It has been shown that those over 50 generally have lower levels of endocannabinoids. So, in general, the older you are, the more likely it is that you will need a higher dose overall.

How do you take your CBD?

It actually impacts this discussion as well. Studies have shown that tinctures in general deliver more into your blood stream and keep it there longer than pills/capsules or even vaping. Vaping offers the quickest hit, but it doesn’t last as long. In the stomach, some of the CBD is changed to other chemicals or simply not absorbed through the intestinal tract. For your best results, it probably means using a tincture.

However, what does your tincture contain?

There are many different CBD products available on the market, and there are wide variations amongst them. Cheaper CBD products tend to have much lower CBD concentrations than more expensive ones. Also, the FDA has often pointed out that there is a wide variety on the market in terms of labeling and actual results. You should always order from manufacturers with high quality standards and independent third-party testing.

Another question to consider is that while we are discussing only CBD, most CBD oil or industrial hemp oil products are full or broad spectrum and not isolates (isolates only contain CBD and nothing else). This means that there are other cannabinoids in them and also likely a variety of terpenes as well. Due to the entourage effect this means that simply having the same amount of CBD per ml of tincture may not guarantee that you will experience the same effect from one manufacturer to another. In other words, the cannabinoid/terpene finger print may make a difference beyond the simple concentration of CBD.

Most research has shown that it is very unlikely that pain will immediately be impacted by one single dose of CBD. For the most part, research has shown that CBD is needed from 3 days to several weeks before the full impact is felt. This means that you need to use patience if you are starting to use CBD for the first time. This is probably why most research that is showing successful results in animals and humans has the dosing occur over a several week time frame.

There are also genetic variations that can impact how dosing impacts you. Some people have genetic variations that effect the size, shape and function of the CB1 and CB2 receptors. If you are one of these people, then you may need more or less to get an effect depending upon how your specific genetics effect these receptor functions.

Finally, your lifestyle can also have a surprising impact. Recent studies have shown that routinely drinking alcohol can cause CB1 receptors to increase. Similarly, those with a high omega three levels in their blood stream also increases CB1 receptors. If you exercise often, then your body likely produces more anandamide (a naturally occurring chemical that resembles THC) which activates CB1 receptors. If any of this applies to you, then you likely do not need a high dose of CBD oil. However, other research has shown that if you have a lot of stress, this causes your cortisol levels to go up. Cortisol is known as the “stress hormone”. It also causes a decrease in the number of CB1 receptors and so decreasing the dose of CBD might be appropriate under these conditions.

The famous phrase here for dosing is “start low and go slow”. That advice takes into consideration a lot of what was described above. It also considers the classic dose response curve. CBD has an upside-down U curve. This means that there is an ideal “sweet spot” in the middle of the curve, or an area of maximum response. As you start low and move higher, your response should go up until at some point it starts to go back down again. Just to make things interesting, cannabinoids throw another curve at you. The response may also change as you move along the curve. How you feel at low dose may be different than at high dose. An example of this is that many feel energized at low doses of CBD, but then feel sleepy or sedated at very high doses.