If you have inflammatory arthritis, you’ve probably heard of CBD for your pain. Here’s some expert advice for more information.
Check the label of any pain reliever for sale and you can easily calculate how much you should take. However, finding the right dosage of cannabidiol (CBD) for pain relief is not so simple.
Enthusiasts swear by CBD’s pain-relieving, inflammation-reducing, anxiety-relieving, and sleep-promoting properties. However, there is no conclusive research on how much CBD a person needs to take to feel the benefits.
The reason for this is that there are very few human studies on CBD, and those that have been conducted involve doses that are not very concrete: In some studies, patients used 5 mg of CBD; in others, they took up to 600 mg. Further adding to the confusion, CBD comes in a number of forms – oils, creams and lotions, pills, vapors, and edibles – and each has differences in terms of bioavailability (the percentage of active ingredient that enters the blood).
“There are no standard dosages for patients,” says Dr. Rachna Patel, a physician who consults on medical hemp and CBD and sells her own line of CBD products. “Currently you have to try a little bit at a time until you find what works for you, but you have to do it in a methodical way.”
Here are some tips to guide you on how to find the right dose of CBD for your pain relief and other symptoms.
Work with an expert
Many factors, such as your body mass index (BMI), your specific health conditions, the medications you take, your medical history, and the form of CBD you plan to use can influence the amount of CBD you need to treat your symptoms. Although CBD is different from medical hemp, a doctor who knows about hemp is probably the best person to help you solve your problem.
“I wouldn’t recommend starting CBD without a doctor’s supervision,” says Dr. Patel, author of The CBD Solution. “Many times people buy a CBD product, try a dose that doesn’t work for them, switch products and change their minds. Or, worse, they develop side effects.”
Do a little math.
Let’s say you and your doctor come to an agreement on a dose of 30 mg of CBD per day. Now what? The answer depends on what form of CBD you take.
Figuring out how much CBD is in capsules or gummies is simple – just read the supplement facts section on the label. (If it says 10 mg of CBD per capsule, you’ll need to take three capsules to get your 30 mg of CBD per day).
Oils can be trickier because the packaging often lists the amount of CBD in the whole bottle, not in a dropper, but it usually comes with instructions for how many mg come in each drop. Visit Genius Updates where you will find lots of great information and practical advice about CBD for pain relief.
When it comes to CBD in topical form (creams, lotions, and balms), you’ll probably see the total amount of CBD in the bottle listed on the label. You’ll then need to divide that total by the number of milliliters in the package to determine how much is in each milliliter. For example, if you have a 50 ml bottle of cream that contains 200 mg of CBD, there is 4 mg per ml.
