Great question.
It's going to the heart of how research is showing CBD does its work!
Most sites out there will give a recommendation for how much and how often to take CBD but with very little backup.
Since the benefits of CBD are showing in research, let's look at that for whether we should take CBD daily.
Many people are new to CBD and have lots of practical questions:
- How much CBD to take
- When to take it during the day
- How long it take to work
- How long does it last
Again...uncharted territory for millions of Americans right now.
It's been charted!
We're going to provide the map.
Let's get to it.
First, a quick intro to how it works will help us get to the question of taking it daily or not.
A quick look at how daily CBD works in the body
You have a widely connected system that affects almost every cell in your body (except for red blood cells...go figure).
It's called the endocannabinoid system.
It's relatively new to the medical community (ask your doctor...it's pretty funny) but research has established its role in the body for a few decades now.
It's tasked with balancing other key systems:
- Endocrine system - hormones for mood, appetite, sleep, and more
- Immune system - response to foreign bodies and tissue repair
- Nervous system - how you feel and perceive the world
Okay...some heavy hitters in the body.
There's a constant DAILY flux in all these systems between competing and coordinating chemicals.
- Ghrelin is a hormone that makes you feel hungry.
- Leptin is a hormone that makes you feel full.
There's a constant tug of war between these two that make you grab that donut!!
Okay...one side won there but you get the point.
There are dozens if not hundreds of similar tug of wars going on around the body and brain for all your basic functions.
All of them!
Some chemicals support each other, turn into each other, inhibit each other.
You name it.
It's an incredibly tuned and choreographed dance and it's happening by the second if not the millisecond!
Many different things in our daily life can knock this careful dance off-balance:
- Hormones in our food and beauty products
- Pesticides in our food
- Chemicals in our home and environment
- Genetic differences that boost or hinder certain pathways
- The effects of age
- Poor nutrition and/or lifestyle
The first 3 are really the big ones that we deal with daily.
They get to the heart of most modern diseases and the research is coming up daily as well.
CBD has been shown to support the endocannabinoid system which looks to be bearing the brunt of our modern world.
This brings up the question then...how often do we take CBD to help in this endeavor?
Let's look at research (always!).
Benefits of daily CBD usage according to research
We have looked at literally 100's of NIH studies on CBD.
With more to come every day!
We love it so don't feel too sorry for us.
It's fascinating.
There are two reasons that people take CBD:
- General wellness and health
- For a specific health issue
Both would benefit from daily usage.
The general wellness and health aim is obvious and then it's a question of how much to take daily.
Like a vitamin basically.
The second is where research really comes through.
Over 60% of people who take CBD use it for a specific health issue.
Here's a list of CBD benefits A-Z but the most common are:
- Pain
- Anxiety
- Sleep
- Autoimmune (a list in itself)
CBD's mechanism with each of these (and more) is tied to balancing the little tugs-of-war between chemicals we mentioned above.
Most of these are cyclical:
- 24 hours wake/sleep cycle
- 4-6 hours hunger/satiety cycle
- Monthly menstrual cycle
Some cycles run hours, minutes, and seconds. Split seconds even.
The key point is that most of them are cycling daily at least.
This actually points to a plan of attack in splitting doses a few times a day.
For example, if we wanted 100mg of CBD per day, 2 times at 50 or 3 times at 33 (ideally after a meal) would be best.
There is an acute (immediate) effect of just one CBD dose shown in research.
This important for issues like anxiety or insomnia.
For example, a single dose of CBD reduced anxiety levels.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/19124693
That's just the start...learn all about CBD for anxiety here.
Interestingly, in the same study, THC (CBD's psychoactive cousin) increased levels of anxiety!
Check out CBD versus THC to understand just how different they are.
In almost all the research, CBD is administered for extended periods of time with daily dosages.
Let's look at some examples.
Ironically, CBD was used to counter the effects of THC and cannabis use/addiction:
Prolonged CBD treatment appears to have promising therapeutic effects for improving psychological symptoms and cognition in regular cannabis users.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5870061/
This was 10 weeks, daily CBD use at 200mg.
In general, the tested CBD for specific issues is between 300-600mg DAILY for extended periods of time.
There's no research benefit to intermittent use of CBD.
For example, cycling use can be seen with some supplements and vitamins.
This is usually to give the body time to clear out a substance because it can build up.
That brings up a good question with daily use…
Does it build up in the body?
Can you take too much CBD?
If CBD were to build up in the body from daily use, it's logical that you would see overdoses or usage dependent side effects.
There's no reported overdose on CBD!
We did an extensive look at CBD and overdose since its so imporant.
This is pretty amazing (and telling).
Tylenol use is the leading cause of liver failure and overdose in the US!
Read that last part over again.
Learn all about how CBD compares to NSAIDs and Tylenol for pain here.
Not alcoholism. Not opioids. Nor other harmful drugs and chemicals.
Something your teenager can buy down at the grocery store.
This means that the body doesn't appear to accumulate CBD to where it becomes bad for us.
What about the usage dependent side-effects?
For example, if we take 10mg of CBD, it might have a given effect on a certain pathway.
If we take 100mg, we would expect a 10 fold increase in that effect.
1000mg, 100 fold.
Eventually, this would be bad.
That doesn't appear to be the case.
In fact, there are studies with doses up to 1500mg of CBD with a strong safety profile.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5569602/
This summary article shows that almost all studies use daily CBD doses.
CBD's estimated half-life in the body is about 4-6 hours.
This speaks to not only daily use but also splitting doses.
Check out the summary on how safe is CBD here.
The other big question with daily use is this...
Does CBD build up tolerance?
This means...does it lose its effect over time?
Research is showing that it doesn't!
We did big review on this a our CBD and withdrawals review.
The net effect is this….
- Daily use of CBD is advisable
- Daily CBD use has a strong safety profile in research
- Daily CBD can be effective for both wellness and health issues
We crafted IndigoNaturals based on research. Lots of it!
Always work with a doctor or naturopath with any supplement!
The information provided here is not intended to treat an illness or substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment from a qualified healthcare provider.