Whether your joints are aching or you have sore muscles, CBD oil can help provide much-needed relief. It’s just a question of how much CBD oil to take for pain relief. We tell most of our customers to start between 10-25 mg per day and adjust from there as needed.
There’s no one-size-fits-all answer on how many mg of CBD for pain relief you should take, though. It really depends on your existing tolerance for CBD and how severe the discomfort is.
We’ll help you find the sweet spot below. You’ll also discover the best CBD oil for aches and pains, along with many other topical solutions for more targeted relief, right here at Medterra. Put pain on pause today!
Key Takeaways
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Most clinical studies point to a range of 10-25mg of CBD per day as a solid starting point.
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You can start at the lower end and gradually up the dose over a few days or a week until you find the sweet spot.
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Sublingual CBD (under the tongue) absorbs in as little as 15-20 minutes for faster relief.
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Topical CBD lets you apply the product right where you’re hurting for more targeted relief.
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Medterra has a dedicated relief CBD collection with tinctures, topicals, and gummies to help you feel better fast.
How Much CBD Oil to Take For Pain Relief?
CBD is one of the best ways to naturally ease aches and discomfort. It works through your endocannabinoid system (ECS). It’s a network of receptors (CB1 and CB2) located throughout the body and brain.
However, CBD doesn’t directly tap into these receptors the way THC does. It works indirectly to make subtle changes. It appears that CBD activates specific pathways involved in pain modulation, such as glycine receptors and serotonin receptors. This can influence the way in which pain signals move throughout the nervous system.1
In simpler terms, CBD turns down the dial on discomfort. It’s still there, you just don’t feel it as sharply. Dosage is everything, though. So how much CBD oil to take for pain relief?
We combed through a study published back in 2021, consisting of 20 pain specialists across nine countries. The goal was to come to a consensus on how many mg of CBD for pain relief is effective.2 Their recommended protocol was 5mg of CBD twice daily (10mg per day), increasing by 10mg every 2-3 days until you finally achieve the relief you’re seeking. The specialists put a 40mg ceiling (per day) on the protocol.
A separate 2020 cohort study of chronic pain patients landed in a similar place. Most participants used around 30mg of CBD per day, and over half reduced or eliminated their opioids within eight weeks, with 94% reporting quality-of-life improvements.³
It of course depends on the product you’re taking, though. Some CBD tinctures have THC in them, and that can completely change the math since THC will get you high - sometimes too high. You have to be more careful when dosing CBD and THC together.
For example, our Max Relief Full Spectrum CBD Oil has 2mg of THC per dropper. That’s not enough to get you stoned alone. But take 2-3 droppers and you’ll definitely feel it! This is why the recommendation is a single dropper as needed.
Factors Influencing Your Ideal CBD Dosage For Pain Relief
We provide guidelines on how much CBD oil to take for pain relief all day long, and our experts provide different recommendations depending on who we’re talking to. Let’s take a closer look at some of the moving pieces at play below:
Body Weight
It’s not a perfect science, but bigger individuals generally do need higher doses of CBD to get the same effect. You can use 1-6mg of CBD per 10lbs of bodyweight as a general rule of thumb.
So, someone who weighs 150lbs might take between 15-25mg per day. Someone who weighs 200lbs might take 20-33mg of CBD daily. Either way, the best approach is always starting at the lower end and working up ONLY if needed.
Type of CBD Oil
We mentioned earlier that guidelines are very different when THC comes into the picture. You should get more specific about the type of CBD oil you’re using:
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CBD isolate: Pure CBD with nothing else whatsoever - no secondary cannabinoids at all, and definitely not THC.
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Broad-spectrum CBD: CBD and all the other cannabinoids found in hemp WITHOUT THC.
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Full-spectrum CBD: Has a measurable THC dose, usually low (2mg per serving) to keep it more CBD-centered.
If you’re asking our opinion, we think THC can be quite helpful in the context of discomfort. It brings its own therapeutic potential to your self-care routine, so we advocate for full-spectrum CBD oil for aches and pains.
Just keep in mind that too much THC can cause its own type of discomfort. Dosage recommendations tend to be stricter for that reason. Don’t consume more than 1 dropper of our Max Relief Full Spectrum CBD Oil, for example (2mg of THC).
On the other hand, you could go a lot higher with a product like our Daily Relief CBD Isolate Oil because there’s really no “overdoing it” with CBD itself. In fact, you may need a higher dose to actually feel a difference.
Severity of Discomfort
This is totally subjective - how bad is the pain? You can probably get relief from mild daily discomfort at only 10-15mg of CBD per day. In contrast, you’d need much more for severe arthritis or neuropathic pain.
How Do Dosage Guidelines Differ For Sleep, Stress, and Other Goals?
You came here curious about how much CBD oil to take for pain relief, but does the answer change if you’re using CBD for something such as sleep, or daily stress? We actually pulled up a couple of studies that we want to unpack for you.
Sleep
72 patients were given 25mg of CBD every single day back in 2019. 66.7% of them reported better sleep scores within the first month!5
That’s the upper end of the range you’ll see recommended for pain, so you might find that you need extra CBD for sleep - up to 50mg is not an uncommon recommendation.
That being said, keep in mind that most sleep CBD products have other stuff in them - if not THC, then botanical ingredients like L-theanine, chamomile, passion flower, or maybe even melatonin.
Stress
The same 2019 study referenced above gave people struggling with stress the same 25mg of CBD daily, and found that nearly 80% of them saw lower anxiety scores within the first month.5
This just goes to show that the 25mg dose of CBD is effective for a lot of things - sleep, pain, stress, the list goes on and on.
How Quickly Will I Feel Relief?
The beauty of CBD oil is how quickly it works to ease discomfort. It’s taken sublingually - meaning you’ll place a dropper of the oil under your tongue and hold it there for between 45-60 seconds. Then, you swallow it.
This can lead to onset in as little as 15-20 minutes since a lot of the CBD works its way through the oral tissue right into the bloodstream, bypassing a lot of the “first pass digestion” that makes edibles take so long to kick in. Speaking of which, edibles can take between 45-60 minutes to kick in depending on your metabolism and what’s in your stomach when you take them.
We’ve talked mostly about how much CBD oil to take for pain relief, but it’s worth noting that topical CBD has its place as well. In fact, a lot of our customers actually prefer CBD topicals because you can apply them right where you’re hurting for more targeted relief. These can start working within 15 minutes and give you a few hours of relief.
Our Pain Relief Cream is a great choice. It’s a concoction of 1,000mg CBD with 4% menthol and arnica. It’s a best-seller for a reason, and it actually earned 2021 Product of the Year in the CBD Personal Care category!
Adjusting Your CBD Oil Dose as Needed
One of the key takeaways from this guide on how many mg of CBD for pain relief you should take is that it’ll change with time. You might start with 10-25mg of CBD per day. But a few months down the road, that same dose may not cut it anymore. You can add another 10mg as needed to get back to feeling good.
We recommend keeping a log of what you take, when you take it, and how it makes you feel. This gives you a little more data behind your dosage increases.
The alternative to upping your dosage is changing the type of product you use. For example, you might upgrade to our Enhanced Relief Broad Spectrum CBD Oil if our Daily Relief CBD Isolate Oil isn’t helping you feel better even at a full dropper. The extra cannabinoids can help through what is known as the entourage effect.
Do I Need to Worry About Taking Too Much CBD?
It’s good that you came here for expert advice on how much CBD oil to take for pain relief. But in the context of just CBD, there’s very little to worry about as far as “overdoing it” goes.
You’re not going to get “too high” or have any sort of discomfort. CBD has a strong safety profile, according to the World Health Organization's 2018 Expert Committee on Drug Dependence.6
That said, there could be side effects at very high doses. Dr. Peter Grinspoon of Harvard Medical School says that it’s possible to experience nausea, fatigue, and irritability.4 Personally, we’ve never encountered any of this with our customers - and we’ve sold hundreds of thousands of bottles of CBD oil! So we’d take that with a grain of salt.
What to Look For in CBD Oil For Pain Relief
The results you get from CBD oil depend on you picking the right product for your specific ailment. But there are a few non-negotiables across the board, too.
Third-Party Lab Testing
Never purchase CBD from a brand that doesn’t proudly display its lab tests for each batch of CBD oil. Everything we sell at Medterra is batch tested by an ISO 17025-compliant lab, and you can access the COA via QR code right on the packaging. This gives you peace of mind knowing it’s free from impurities and loaded with all the good stuff you need to feel better.
Spectrum and Ingredients
Like we touched on earlier, a full-spectrum vs broad-spectrum CBD oil is going to feel very different - as will CBD isolate. We still recommend going with full-spectrum because we’ve seen firsthand how powerful THC can be for relief.
That being said, we recognize some people want to avoid it altogether, be it for personal or drug testing reasons. It’s entirely up to you. One option is to start with isolate and see how that works. You can then progress to broad spectrum if need be. And if that doesn’t get it done, you can explore full-spectrum formulas. There’s something for everyone at Medterra!
Look Beyond Tinctures
Don’t get us wrong, we love CBD oil - it’s one of our best-selling categories. But other formats have their place as well. CBD gummies, for example, can provide relief for much longer - 4-8 hours in some cases. CBD topicals let you apply the product right where you feel the discomfort.
The truth is, you might find that you want multiple formats for different times of day! Browse our CBD store online and explore all of Mother Nature’s finest CBD products for rapid, lasting relief.
Final Words - How Many mg of CBD For Pain Relief?
In closing, how much CBD oil to take for pain is a moving target. We recommend starting with 10mg a day and increasing by 5-10mg until you find the sweet spot. Stay at that dose until it no longer works. Shop Medterra and put discomfort on pause today!
Frequently asked questions
Does CBD oil show up on a drug test?
Only if there is THC in the mix. Drug tests don’t actually look for CBD. You have little to worry about with CBD isolate or even broad-spectrum CBD.
Will topical CBD oil get me high?
Nope - again, assuming there’s no THC in the mix. CBD is never intoxicating regardless of dose. Full-spectrum CBD products typically don’t have enough THC to get you high, either, unless you take multiple doses.
Is 25 mg of CBD enough for pain?
Yes, but we actually recommend starting lower, as said throughout our guide on how many mg of CBD for pain relief you should take. The goal is to find your minimum effective dose (MED) and stay there. Start with 10mg and work up as needed.
Related Resources
CBD oil vs weed oil | How old do you have to be to buy CBD? | Isolate vs distillate
References
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Argueta DA, Ventura CM, Kiven S, Sagi V, Gupta K. A Balanced Approach for Cannabidiol Use in Chronic Pain. Front Pharmacol. 2020;11:561. PubMed
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Bhaskar A, Bell A, Boivin M, et al. Consensus recommendations on dosing and administration of medical cannabis to treat chronic pain. J Cannabis Res. 2021;3:22. PubMed
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Capano A, Weaver R, Burkman E. Evaluation of the effects of CBD hemp extract on opioid use and quality of life indicators in chronic pain patients. Postgrad Med. 2020;132(1):56-61. PubMed
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Grinspoon P. Cannabidiol (CBD): What We Know and What We Don't. Harvard Health Publishing. 2018 (updated). Harvard Health
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Shannon S, Lewis N, Lee H, Hughes S. Cannabidiol in Anxiety and Sleep: A Large Case Series. Perm J. 2019;23:18-041. PubMed
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World Health Organization. Cannabidiol (CBD) Critical Review Report. Expert Committee on Drug Dependence, 40th Meeting. 2018. WHO Report
