As the popularity of CBD and the knowledge of its potential health benefits continues to increase, more and more people are turning to CBD daily. One of the most common questions that first come up for many people who are just starting with CBD is “how much do I take?”. Unfortunately, there is not an easy answer to that question. There is no “perfect dose” of CBD.

Another confusing factor is the increase in the variety of CBD products available in this growing market now. From the most popular form, CBD tinctures or oils, to vape liquid, cartridges, gummies, and more. All these products also often come in varying levels of CBD concentrations.

So how do you know how much to take and which product is best for you? We’ll help you figure that out in this article.

FDA Suggested Servings?

The Food & Drug Administration (FDA) are the ones who are responsible for creating a Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) for nutrients and supplements. Because there is currently medical testing going on regarding CBD, its effects, and its benefits as a medicine, legally the FDA cannot classify CBD as a nutritional food supplement. This now causes legal confusion because, after the legalization of CBD derived from hemp as part of the 2018 Farm Bill, it originally was to be considered a nutritional supplement. This means that still as of late, as the FDA tries to figure out how to regulate CBD, there is no RDI or suggested serving sizes directly from them.

Some CBD products may have a “suggested” serving size on the package from the manufacturer. This is not definitive or based on scientific and medical evidence. Ultimately, the proper dosage you take each day is up to you, your body, and several other factors.

 

Factors To Consider

There are several factors to take into consideration when trying to determine what dosage is best for you. Many people that first start taking CBD daily are in a range of between 4 milligrams and 30 milligrams per day. Of course, you can go up or down with those numbers depending on your situation. The goal is to find the smallest dose that provides you the outcome you are looking for.

It is important to note that even in large quantities CBD is completely safe, according to the World Health Organization, and there is no known risk of overdosing.

You should strongly consider the effects you are looking for, any ailments you are trying to combat, and other factors like your body chemistry to determine what is right for you. Let’s take a look at some of these other factors.

 

BODY WEIGHT

One of the first factors to look at when trying to determine the proper dosage of CBD is your body weight. As with almost all substances, someone with more body mass will usually require more CBD to get optimal effects.

You always want to start low and work your way up. Based on references and recommendations from a wide variety of industry resources (*not medically definitive) it would be safe to say a 120 lb person could start with a daily dose of 12 milligrams. This would provide a good low starting point to judge the effects and work up from there to a higher range of 18mg if needed. While a 190 lb person could start with 18mg a day and then try 27mg if needed.

BODY CHEMISTRY, METABOLISM, SENSITIVITY

Each individual’s body is different from the next. Your body chemistry and your sensitivity to medications, supplements, etc will play a big part in determining a good daily dosage of CBD. If you know that you are normally sensitive to medication and supplements, you more than likely will not need as high of a dose compared to others.

You also have to factor in your unique history with the things you have put in your body up until this point. How CBD reacts in your body will be affected by any previous use of substances, supplements,  and medications.

 

DESIRED RESULTS OR AILMENT YOU ARE BATTLING

The optimal CBD dosage for you will vary widely depending on what effects you are looking to achieve or if you are trying to combat a specific chronic ailment. For instance, an adequate dosage of topical CBD cream might be more effective for someone trying to relieve chronic pain and inflammation versus a tincture.

The good news is, as more medical and scientific research is being done on CBD there are recent studies that are coming closer and closer to pinpointing medically-recommended CBD dosage measurements for specific ailments.

For example, this review by the Mayo Clinic can be used as a starting point. Some of the recommendations from the Mayo Clinic doctors include200 to 300 milligrams of CBD per day to help battle epilepsy or 40 to 160 milligrams to aid sleep.

 

THE CONCENTRATION OF CBD IN THE SELECTED PRODUCT

Another factor that will play a part in determining and measuring your daily dosage is the varying concentration of CBD between products. The level can vary within the product itself and from different types of products.

For example, our CBD Tincture is available in 500mg and 1000mg CBD concentrations. Then if you look at the CBD C-Cell Cartridges, they often come in 600mg CBD. So it is important to take note of the CBD concentration level in your preferred method of delivery.

 

SO HOW DO YOU DETERMINE THE RIGHT CBD DOSAGE?

Consult With Your Doctor

As with any supplement, when you are trying to determine which dosage of CBD would be the best for you, consulting your doctor is going to be your best bet. Even when you are fairly sure you’ve got it figured out on your own,your doctor has a pretty good idea of how things may react in your body. This is based on your health history, history of medications, etc and they can provide some guidance.

Not every doctor will be able to provide specific information on CBD, some may be able to help recommend ideal dosages or help determine if the brand you’ve been looking at is high-quality. If you are currently taking any medications, it is highly recommended that you speak with your doctor before starting CBD.

 

WORK YOUR WAY UP

When starting a new CBD routine once you’ve determined the daily CBD level you want to achieve, it is suggested you start low and go slow. Start with a dose below your desired level, to see how it affects you, and work your way up from there every couple of days.

Depending on the serving size, method of delivery, your body chemistry, etc it can take a couple of minutes to a couple of hours for the effects of CBD to fully appear. So it is important to be patient. Once you get to a comfortable daily dosage for yourself, you can then decide if you are happy at that level or you want to continue to increase gradually.

 

Learn How To Measure Your Dosage For Your Desired Product

Depending on the type of CBD product, whether you are wanting to use a tincture or vape oil or capsules for example, it may or may not be clear exactly how much CBD is in a single serving. With liquids like oils, tinctures, and vape juice you more than likely have questions.

The most popular form of delivery for CBD is still oil and tinctures. These bottles come with tincture droppers that are most commonly graduated and hold 1ml of liquid or 20 single drops. Oftentimes, the packaging on these bottles indicates how much CBD is in the entire bottle and not just per dropper or per single drop. Once you know your desired personal dosage you can use a simple math formula to determine how much CBD is in the dropper and per drop. (Don’t worry, it’s not that scary.)

Then you’ll know if you should be taking a full dropper, half, etc. Take a look:

 

[Total milligrams (mg) of CBD in the Bottle]

÷ [Number of milliliters (ml) in Bottle]

= MGs of CBD in one ml of fluid (a full dropper)

÷ [Number of drops in a full dropper]

= MGs of CBD in one single drop from the dropper

For example, let’s say you have a 30ml bottle of our Crush CBD Sweet Strawberry Tincture containing 1000mg of CBD:

1000mg CBD ÷ 30ml in the bottle = 33.33mg of CBD per dropper. Each dropper contains 20 single drops that would be 1.67mg of CBD per single drop.

So let’s say your target dosage of CBD is 30mg for example. This would mean you would take 18 single drops, or just under one full dropper, to get 30mg of CBD.

For oils and tinctures, always make sure to administer the CBD under the tongue for optimal absorption since CBD is very poorly absorbed by the gastrointestinal tract when swallowed.

A newer product on the market that is quickly growing in popularity is CBD Vape Oil, also known as E-Juice. As with tinctures, most vape oil bottles will have the total amount of milligrams of CBD in the entire bottle, not per milliliter. Ideally, you want to know how much CBD is in each mL as you fill your tank or vape pen. The slimmer and smaller vape pens often hold 1mL of liquid while tanks hold 2-3mL.

To measure your dosage for vape oil (E-Juice) you use the same math equation as with the tincture bottles just without the last half that determines per single drop. For vape oil:

[Total milligrams (mg) of CBD in the Bottle]

÷ [Number of milliliters (ml) in Bottle]

= MGs of CBD in one ml of fluid

So, for example, if you have a 30ml bottle of our Crush CBD Blue Raspberry E-Juice containing 500mg of CBD:

500mg CBD ÷ 30ml in the bottle = 16.67mg of CBD per 1ml of E-Juice. If you fill a slim vape pen with 1ml you’ll have 16.67mg of CBD. If you fill a 2ml capacity tank you’ll have 33.33mg of CBD and if you fill a 3ml tank you’ll have 50.1mg of CBD.

 

WRAPPING IT ALL UP

As you can see, there is no ideal “one size fits all” CBD serving size. Without specific suggested serving sizes from the FDA things can get confusing quickly. Especially with so many different types of CBD products and methods of CBD delivery on the market today.

But, by now it should be a little clearer on how to determine and measure the perfect daily CBD dose for you.There are a lot of factors that should be taken into account when zeroing in on what dosage would provide optimal benefits daily.

Remember to start at the lowest end of a dose as possible and slowly work your way up every couple of days. The goal is to find the lowest dosage that works for you. If you do start to feel like you are not getting enough you can always increase slowly in 5mg increments.

Have you been able to determine a good CBD dosage? What did your journey to determine your dosage look like? Let us know. We want to hear from you!

At Crush CBD, we know that determining the proper dosage for yourself and which of our products you should choose can be confusing. We are here to help! Reach out to us and we can answer any questions you may have.