Understanding CBD Dosage: What You Need to Know

This article was published in partnership with cbdMD

Like most people, you probably want to know what you’re getting into before you put something new in your body—and CBD is no different. So when it comes to the various claims CBD companies make versus the numbers they write on their bottles, you should know exactly what that number means in terms of benefits for you.

Plus, it can help you sort out the great products that will actually deliver from the ones that are just making empty promises.

Why CBD Dosage Matters

The “CBD dosage” written on a product label is typically one of those things people just accept without really knowing what it means—but you should. Because that little number will tell you what kinds of benefits you can expect from your CBD oil tinctures, gummies, or softgels.

Whether you’re using CBD for stress, to help you fall asleep at night, or to give your muscle recovery an extra boost, you should know what it is you’re putting in your body.

The terms “CBD dosage” and “CBD strength” are sometimes used synonymously, but they refer to slightly different things. The CBD strength is the amount of CBD in a given amount of product, whether a whole bottle or one drop, whereas the CBD dosage is the amount of CBD that you take at one time. But they are related in that the higher the strength of the product, the higher a dosage you’ll get per serving.

Not only that, but it’s important to consider the CBD formula behind the product. Because broad spectrum CBD and full spectrum CBD are on two different levels. The addition of a small measure of THC automatically bumps up the strength and potency of full spectrum CBD products, even if their CBD content is otherwise identical.

Naturally, the higher the CBD dosage, the more benefits you’ll see. But that’s not all.

More CBD Leads to Greater Benefits

It takes time for your body to digest things, and CBD is no exception. But it’s during the digestion process that you actually lose a portion of the CBD you ingested. Meaning that just because you ate a CBD gummy that contained 25 mg of CBD, doesn’t mean all 25 mg will make it into your bloodstream.

It also takes time for your body to get familiar with CBD, so you probably won’t immediately see a ton of benefits if you’re trying a 25 mg CBD gummy for the first time. Since CBD gradually builds up in your body, you won’t really see the most benefits until you’ve been using CBD consistently for at least 30 days or so.

However, those same rules don’t exactly apply to high strength CBD products. Why? Because when you use high strength CBD oil, what you’re actually doing is rapidly infusing your system with the same amount of CBD you’d only see after multiple days or even weeks of using regular strength CBD.

Let’s say you like taking a CBD gummy every night to help you relax after a stressful day at work.

Instead of using regular CBD gummies that would give you around 25 mg per serving, you could be using 200 mg Full Spectrum CBD gummies. That’s a CBD dosage that would have otherwise taken you at least eight days to see the same level of benefits. Sure, you still lose a small percentage of CBD during digestion, but you’ll stay ahead of the curve by starting out with a higher CBD dosage.

Of course, you might expect that a higher CBD dosage would automatically come at a higher cost. But that doesn’t have to be the case.

A Higher CBD Dosage Shouldn’t Mean a Higher Cost

One of the coolest things about CBD is that it’s actually fairly easy for manufacturers to extract a large amount of CBD from the Cannabis sativa plant and ensure that a specific amount is included in each product. Therefore, infusing 200 mg of CBD into a particular formula isn’t all that different from infusing 25 mg of CBD.

What this means is that there’s actually no reason for one to cost more than the other, since the process is essentially the same. Historically, what’s driven up costs was the supply of hemp – since it was federally illegal to grow before 2014, it took a while for supply to catch up with demand. But now hemp is much more widely grown, and therefore less expensive.

That’s helped bring down the price of high-potency CBD, and also helped level out the cost difference between broad spectrum and full spectrum CBD.

Take cbdMD’s CBD PM tinctures, for instance. Their Broad Spectrum CBD PM for Sleep tinctures and Full Spectrum CBD Sleep PM tinctures each have 1500 mg of CBD per bottle—and they’re both the exact same price, even though one also includes a few mg of THC.

So if you’re having trouble sleeping at night and a broad spectrum tincture just isn’t cutting it, swapping to full spectrum tinctures won’t cost you a dime more.