How Many Drops of CBD Oil Should I Take?

CBD oil has been used for so many ailments including, insomnia, anxiety and pain. If you’re thinking about taking cannabidiol (CBD) oil, you may be wondering how many drops you need to take. That gets a little tricky, so here’s what we mean.

Photo: Unsplash

Factors Affecting CBD Dosage

According to Healthline, there are tons of factors that impact how much CBD will be right for you. Some of the factors are:

• The concentration of CBD in your product of choice
• Your body weight and chemistry
• The condition you’re using CBD to treat

Deciding How Many Drops of CBD Oil To Take

We would first recommend that you speak to your doctor about dosage. A medical professional would be able to consider the aforementioned factors and come up with a dose that would be a great for you.

On the other hand, if you’re doing this without a doctor’s recommendation, start small and then increase over time. 

That’s the general advice for any condition because, as we said before, the exact amount of oil depends. For example, The Arthritis Foundation said, “Go low and slow. Start with just a few milligrams of CBD in sublingual form twice a day. If relief is inadequate after one week, increase the dose by that same amount.” They continued by saying to increase for a few weeks and until you find the dose that works for you. When you do, take that dose twice a day so that you can “maintain a stable level of CBD in the blood”. Remember this is what is recommended for arthritis, the dosage you may need for another condition could be different.

CBD Dosage Chart

If you’re looking for some more guidance, Medical News Today came up with a CBD dosage chart for various conditions based on some studies. 

Table showing suggested CBD dosage for various medical conditions (Source: Medical News Today)

Calculating CBD Oil Dosage 

In order to know how much CBD oil to take, you’ll need to know much CBD is each drop. Oils tend to have about 1mg per drop but they vary. 

Healthline provides a great guide to figure out how much CBD oil to take. According to Healthline, in order to calculate how much CBD oil you should take, you should consider that one drop contains 0.05 milliliters (mL). Next check how much oil is in the bottle and what the potency is.

Let’s look at an example. If the CBD oil bottle is 10mL, it has about 200 drops of oil in it. If the bottle says it has 1,000 mg of CBD then each drop would have 5mg of CBD. So, if you wanted to take 20mg of CBD, you would need 4 drops of oil. 

CBD Dosage Calculator

Here are some important formulas:

Number of drops in bottle = Volume of CBD Oil Bottle/ 0.5mL

Amount of CBD in each drop = Amount of CBD in bottle(mg)/ number of drops in bottle

How many drops of CBD oil you should take = Desired dosage/ amount of CBD in each drop

How Long Do the Effects of CBD Last?

According to Healthline, the amount of time you will feel the effects of CBD depends on several factors. These factors include:

• How you use it CBD – (Whether you take ingest it as an edible or take it sublingually)
• How CBD much you use – (how much CBD was in the product you use)
• Your tolerance – (how your body tolerates CBD)

In general, the effects of CBD can last anywhere from 2 hours to 6 hours. However, everybody is different and you experience a different time period of effects. It’s good to pay attention to how your body reacts to different forms of CBD and how much of it you take. 

Can you take too much CBD?

It’s normal to wonder if you can take too much CBD; however, it doesn’t seem possible to overdose on CBD. According to a review, dosage as high as 1500mg seemed to be tolerated by people. That doesn’t mean you can have 1500mg and everything will be fine. High doses of CBD can cause side effects. According to a review you may experience:

• Fatigue
• Diarrhea
• Changes in appetite and weight

In addition to that, animal studies indicate that high doses of CBD of may cause liver damage.  

If you’re using other medication, it would be best to consult your doctor to discuss possible interactions. Healthline says, “there’s some evidence that it may interact with blood thinners, immune suppressant drugs, and antidepressants”.

Even if you aren’t on medication, discussing CBD usage with your doctor is a great idea. 

Conclusion

The number of drops of CBD oil you should take depends on so many things. Having a chat with your doctor can provide some much needed guidance. However, if you don’t have a doctor’s recommendation you can start with small doses and gradually increase. After figuring out how much CBD oil you want to start with, calculate how many drops from the specific bottle of CBD oil you have, so you know how many drops you need. Once you find your desired dosage, you may start to reap the benefits from CBD oil.