How long does it take for CBD to work for MCAS

We have some good news here.

There’s both an immediate effect from CBD isolate and a longer term one as well.

People generally feel CBD pretty quickly and we’ll look at how fast and more importantly how to speed this process.

More importantly, there are effects that build over a two week period as we’ll see below.

We have a huge review of CBD and MCAS explained for more research.

Let’s cover these topics here:

• How long does it take for CBD to work for MCAS
• The short term effect of CBD for MCAS
• The longer term effect of CBD for MCAS
• Strategy and timetable for CBD dosing with MCAS
• How to speed CBD isolate’s effect for mast cells

Let’s get started!

How long does it take for CBD to work for MCAS

People dealing with MCAS generally feel pretty miserable. Of all the reasons that we see people take CBD isolate for, MCAS and histamine generally appear to have the best result.

You can look at reviews here and see the response. Just search by histamine or mast cell.

We go into why CBD isolate is much more suited for MCAS than full or broad spectrum CBD. 

So…how long it take?

The standard response to CBD isolate begins in 20-30 minutes generally which is comparable to medications.

This is due to the fact that the gut and more specifically, the liver, must process it for it to take effect.

Peak CBD usually occurs around 4-6 hours taking it so that works nicely with meals and we’ll explain below why this can increase the benefit.

Let’s talk about the short term effect for symptoms right now!

The short term effect of CBD for MCAS

We looked at this with anxiety (see big CBD and anxiety guide).

Some of the effects from CBD occur very rapidly.

GABA is a big piece of this it’s the calming pathway in the nervous system and body generally.

In fact, GABA is a critical counter-balance against histamine in the nervous system.

Therefore, the anti-allergic properties of GABA have been used to ameliorate allergic symptoms such as AD.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7691095/

In fact, the major anxiety drug class, benzos, directly calms mast cell activity although at quite a cost (addiction and tolerance - see CBD versus benzos).

A novel type of GABA(A) receptors on mast cells appears to be involved in the inhibition of mast cell activity by 1,4-benzodiazepines.

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23352970/

Benzos directly juice up GABA activity (till the body pushes back).

Can we get this immediate GABA effect without the extra baggage from CBD?

Check out our CBD and GABA review but to the point:

Preclinical evidence suggests that one aspect of the polypharmacy of CBD is that it modulates brain excitatory glutamate and inhibitory γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) levels, including in brain regions linked to ASD, such as the basal ganglia (BG) and the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (DMPFC).

That study was looking at autism specifically but we the effect everywhere.

Technically, CBD is an allosteric modulator for GABA which means it acts like a feedback mechanism when GABA is low…or exhausted from mast cell activation!

We see this effect all over allergies which is driven by histamine or even inflammatory diseases like asthma (histamine on steroids).

Check out CBD and systemic inflammation to learn more.

That GABA effect is pretty fast. What about longer term?

The longer term effect of CBD for MCAS

Two facets here.

First, we have serotonin, a master regulator of all human behavior. Check out our CBD and serotonin guide.

Serotonin takes time to build which is why SSRIs don’t work for a few weeks.

The real star behind serotonin and depression is BDNF or neurogenesis. Brain repair/replenishment.

It’s best to think of serotonin as a stress response player and stress can indeed be histamine and inflammation.

The relationship between histamine and serotonin is fascinating:

Histamine is equal to basal brain histamine in controls and higher during stress. Decrease in serotonin from its basal level intensifies the stressed condition caused by increase in histamine. On the other hand, serotonin levels above basal level alleviates stress caused by rise in histamine level.

https://jneuroinflammation.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12974-022-02508-9

Learn all about histamine in more detail since it’s a huge driver of MCAS.

The other part deals with the immune system since mast cells at the heart of MCAS are primarily members of the immune system.

Forward guards if you will!

We have a whole guide on CBD and the immune system. Really fascinating effect here depending on the state of the system.

The biggest factor is CBD’s ability to help balance immune response.

Rather than going into the weeds to every inflammatory agent (a thicket of cytokines and the like), we’ll zoom out to the general “setting” of the immune system:

These mice displayed significant reduction in Th1 inflammatory cytokine production of IFN- γ and TNF- α, and an increase in Th2 cytokine production of IL-4 and IL-10, suggesting that CBD may exert an immunomodulatory mechanism resulting in a Th1 to Th2 immune response shift

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7445536/

The key there is “Th2”.

There are two primary settings to our body’s inflammation state:

• TH1 - pro-inflammatory (think MCAS)
• TH2 - anti-inflammatory; resolve and repair

Goodness…CBD is helping to shift the balance when needed but not to much or we would see issues with cancer and infection (see CBD and cancer).

That balancing of the immune system is not immediate. It takes time!

Likely 30 days plus since the epigenome (control genes for the rest of our genetics) take about that long to adjust generally.

We see this drug withdrawals such as the GABA receptors after benzo cessation. (see tapering benzo tools).

So..we have a rough sketch of how it takes for CBD to work with MCAS.

From 15 minutes (symptoms) to 30 days (immune balancing).

Everyone’s different but this is a good guideline.

Based on this, what’s our dosage strategy for MCAS?

Strategy and timetable for CBD dosing with MCAS

We’ll follow the drug tapering protocol based on everything above.

• Day 1-10: higher dose to calm immediate symptoms; 600-800mg daily divided into 3 doses
• Day 11-30: middle dose to repair based on peak neurogenesis studies; 300mg daily divided into 3 doses
• Day 30+: lower dose of 50-150mg daily depending on how you feel

Also, check out our How to Calm Mast Cells guide for other tools and tips.

Is there any way to boost and speed how long it takes CBD to work for MCAS?

How to speed CBD isolate’s effect for mast cells

First, do not take CBD with medications unless you talk with your doctor. Generally 4-6 hours away from meds is minimum but it shares a common liver pathway with many other meds.

Otherwise, there are two tips:

• Hold the CBD under your tongue up to 60 seconds to boost availability via the sublingual gland
• Take after meals; preferably with fat to allow more to get the liver

These two tips can boost bioavailability up to 4 times! (see more here).

We go deep into the best CBD for MCAS so you can avoid the biggest mistake people are making out there (full or broad spectrum which can trigger histamine).

That’s a wrap.