In short: There's no single right dose of CBD. Your ideal amount depends on your body, your endocannabinoid levels, and how you take it. Start with a drop or two, two to three times a day, and increase gradually over a couple of weeks. Keep a journal to track what works.
When you're new to taking CBD oil, figuring out the right CBD dosage for you can seem like a bit of a minefield. Some brands specify a recommended number of drops on the bottle, others suggest half a pipette regardless of strength, and it wasn't long ago that the Food Standards Agency (the official regulating body for CBD oil in the UK) announced a dramatically reduced suggested dose, contrary to what most studies use to test the safety and efficacy, with little evidence to back it up.
So where do you begin with this? Here's a simple CBD dosing guide.
How much CBD oil should I take?
The truth is that, while there are certain doses that have been proven effective for specific needs in the multitude of research papers available, everyone is different.
While one person might see instant benefit from a couple of drops a day, others build up to a 100mg dose before they notice a real difference. This is because the right dose of CBD oil for you is actually dependent on a number of factors:
- Your base endocannabinoid levels: if you have an endocannabinoid deficiency, you're likely to need more CBD oil to bring these up.
- Blood volume: someone very broad and tall is probably going to need to take more CBD oil than someone small and slight.
- Your unique metabolism of cannabinoids
Unfortunately, there's no way to test these things to know for sure where you sit on the scale, so finding your perfect CBD dose does involve some trial and error. But CBD oil has been tested safely with no serious adverse effects up to 6,000mg in a single dose (Taylor et al., 2018) — that's a lot. Don't do that, because if nothing else it would be very expensive. But many people do enjoy experimenting with higher and lower doses without any problems.
Finding the right CBD dose: keep a journal
The results were so gradual and subtle that they didn't realise how transformational they were until they stopped.
Keeping a CBD journal can be extremely helpful when working out your ideal CBD dose. Something I've heard time and again from people who have had huge success with CBD oil is that the results were so gradual and subtle, rather than sudden and strong, that they didn't realise how transformational they were until they stopped taking the oil.
By keeping a CBD journal and tracking changes you experience, you'll be able to see it happening in real time and keep track of the dose you were taking when things improved. This will also help you to see if results plateau as you increase your dose, so you don't end up taking more than you need, saving you money.
The general advice when starting with CBD oil is to "start low and go slow." Beginning with just a drop or two, two to three times per day is a great place to start. Do this for at least a couple of weeks, keeping notes of your progress and the dose used. Assuming all is going well, add a couple of drops and track again, and keep going like this until you find your personal CBD dosage.
Does anything affect CBD dosage?
Multiple factors can increase or decrease bioavailability — the amount of the product that becomes active in your body. Boosting bioavailability is a great way to make the most out of your CBD oil.
You can increase bioavailability of CBD oil by:
Holding under your tongue for a minute
You want the oil to absorb via the sublingual gland (under your tongue) rather than having to go through the digestive system, which is what happens when you swallow it. When you allow CBD to absorb via the sublingual gland it goes directly into your bloodstream for the fastest action and lowest degradation of the active molecules.
Taking CBD after brushing your teeth or eating
Both of these things increase blood flow to your mouth which, when the oil is absorbed via the sublingual gland, will make absorption more effective. If you've eaten something fatty that's even better for absorbing oils.
Why are CBD edibles a higher dose?
If you have a 10ml bottle of a 500mg CBD oil, two drops would typically contain 5mg of CBD (a 10ml bottle contains around 200 drops, so the calculation is 500 divided by 200 to get the approximate drop content). You may have noticed that CBD edibles offer a much higher CBD dosage — often 10mg to 50mg per gummy or square of chocolate. There's good reason for this.
When you take a CBD oil you need to let it absorb under your tongue rather than swallow it, as when you swallow CBD (as you would with an edible) it has to go through your digestive system before it reaches your bloodstream. This can be helpful if you're specifically wanting to target the CBD receptors in your gut, or if you'd like your CBD to have a slower acting, longer lasting effect. But you need to take a higher dose otherwise the digestive process will significantly reduce the bioavailability.
Research suggests the bioavailability of sublingual CBD oil is up to 35%, whereas oral delivery has the lowest bioavailability of all methods — some studies estimate as low as 6% in humans (Millar et al., 2020).
If you'd like to target your gut with CBD oil, you can swallow it. Just remember to take a higher dose than you normally would. Or try the unspun CBD gummies or unspun CBD chocolate.
Need help working out the best CBD dosage for you? Try the unspun dosage calculator.
This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. If you're taking medication, consult your GP before using CBD.