How To Know Your Dose™ of CBD
“How much CBD should I take?”
This is the most frequently asked question we receive.
Unfortunately the answer is not simple, but it is extremely important. So important, we have made a promise to help you Know Your Dose ™.
The easy answer to how much CBD you should take is to take as much as you need to feel the effects you are looking for and no more. This is called the minimum effective dose.
Taking anything less than this is not effective. Taking anything more is a waste as you are already seeing the results you wanted. More does not equal better!
So how do you know how much the minimum effective dose is for you?
There are no dosing charts that are backed by medical research that have calculated the minimum effective dose for CBD for humans. The research is new and slow, but it is coming.
But so far, research shows a wide range of effective doses in humans, between 1mg and 50mg, depending on the condition for which treatment was tested.
So while we wait for the research to help us out with this question, we recommend an experimental approach to find out how much CBD you need to get your minimum effective dose and feel the effects you are looking for.
The CBD Dosing Experiment
When trying to figure out how much CBD you need to consume to get the effects you are looking for, you first need to know what those effects are. They become the goal you are trying to achieve.
Once you know your goal, write it down. Let’s say you wanted to try CBD to see if it will help you sleep better, then maybe your goal is to sleep through the night.
Next, you need to know how you plan on consuming CBD. There are different ways you can consume CBD, including eating it, inhaling it, taking it sublingually (holding under your tongue), and subcutaneously (rubbing it on your skin).
Your choice should be determined by preference, but we should mention the bioavailability of CBD.
A Note about Bioavailability
There is a big word used in the CBD research called bioavailability. It simply means how much of the medicine is absorbed by your body so that it can be used to help you.
The bioavailability of CBD is determined by how you consume it. Your body does a better job of quickly absorbing CBD if you inhale it or hold it under your tongue than it does if you eat it or rub it on your skin.
It is important to keep in mind that We are all different, and our physiology will react differently to CBD, which is why it is important to experiment to find the CBD products that work the best for you.
Time to Start Collecting Data
Once you have the product you are going to consume for CBD, you can begin collecting data.
For any experiment to be successful, we need to collect data to draw conclusions. To help you with this, we put together a handy worksheet that you can download and print out.
Use this worksheet to take note of important details like the date and time you took the CBD, how much you took (in mg), what kind you had, and then the effects you felt (or didn’t feel).
Start the Experiment
You should begin by taking the lowest dose possible that can accurately be measured in the CBD product you choose.
Let’s say you are going to eat our Peanut Butter Chocolate cookies to try to help you sleep better at night.
Because of our promise to help you know your dose, you can be secure knowing our products are all precisely dosed. So you know with every cookie you eat, you are going to get a 15mg dose of CBD (a delicious dose we might add!).
Then wait and see if you feel the effects of the CBD that you are looking for.
Using our example, you would eat one cookie before bed and then go to bed.
In the morning, take note of how you felt overnight. Did you wake up? If you did, could you go back to sleep quickly? Did you have a hard time falling asleep? Did you get a full night’s sleep?
Repeat the Process
Try for a few days and note all of the answers to those questions on the worksheet for each night.
Remember, these questions will be different depending on your unique reason for consuming CBD.
If you feel like you are able to sleep better through the night, then you found your minimum effective dose to help you achieve what you wanted.
If not, then you might need to try more CBD. In that case, eat two cookies and see how you feel.
Keep repeating this process until you feel the desired effects from CBD. Your worksheet will help you know when this happens.
As long as you diligently complete it and pay attention to the results, you will be able to find the right dose you need.
What If I Don’t Feel Effects at All?
If you have done the above steps for a product and didn’t feel any effects, even after you increased how much you consumed, then your best bet is to try a different method.
Everybody is different in how they will process CBD and which methods work best. That is why you need to experiment with not just amount but how you consume the CBD (remember bioavailability?).
The key is to continue to experiment and take note of how you feel. Since every one of us has an endocannabinoid system, we will feel the effects of CBD. But it will take trial and error before we can know the best way to achieve those effects.
Keep these things in mind and pay close attention to how you feel when taking CBD and you will soon KNOW YOUR DOSE!