When it comes to medical marijuana, sometimes more isn’t better.
The concept of microdosing isn’t a new one, though it wasn’t until very recently that it has become popular among medical marijuana patients. If you’re wondering how microdosing marijuana can help you get the relief you’re after, continue on below for all you need to know to get started!
What Is Microdosing?
The concept of microdosing is pretty simple. It just refers to taking small amounts of cannabis, usually frequently throughout the day.
The premise behind marijuana microdosing is equally straightforward. Instead of overwhelming the endocannabinoid system with more cannabinoids than it needs, the thinking goes: Why not provide smaller doses designed to kickstart the body’s own endocannabinoid production? Endocannabinoids like anandamide, after all, are what really keep pain and inflammation at bay.
What are the Benefits of Microdosing?
When microdosing marijuana is put into practice effectively, users can enjoy the benefits of high-potency cannabis while minimizing the psychoactive effects that can get in the way of the rest of their day. Not to mention, it also saves patients money!
Defining Dosages
Prior to current legalization efforts, marijuana consumers had only vague notions of the actual of dosage of THC being consumed. Today’s standardized labeling takes much of the guesswork out of determining a preferred dosage, but variables remain. THC content in marijuana flower can vary from less than 1 percent to around 30 percent, but only a portion of that content becomes bioavailable to the user.
Research suggests that smoked marijuana provides an average bioavailability of around 30 percent. Based on that figure, an average-sized marijuana cigarette containing .5 grams of marijuana with a 10 percent THC content would deliver about 15 milligrams (mg) of THC to a user who consumed the entire cigarette. For research purposes, the National Institute on Drub Abuse and other research organizations have established 5mg as the standard unit of THC considered as a single dose.
Other research groups have settled on a 7mg standard. States have adopted similar standards, setting either 5mg or 10mg of THC as the standard dose for edible cannabis products. There is no current standard for what would be considered a “microdose” of THC at the consumer level, but a survey of websites and forums devoted to the subject reveals that dosages with THC thresholds below 5mg would fit this definition, and 2.5 milligrams also represents a common dosage.
How Much Marijuana Should You Use to Microdose?
The amount of medical marijuana used when microdosing will vary from person to person. Depending on a user’s tolerance, condition, and individual physiology, what may work well for them may be ineffective for another or produce unwanted effects.
According to osteopathic physician, Dr. Dustin Sulak:
The goal is to use the dose that gives the most minimal noticeable effect.
According to Leafly, a good starting point for most medical marijuana patients interested in trying microdosing is to start off at between 1 and 2.5 milligrams of tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) and stick with that dosage for at least 3 days. Slowly increase your dosage from there, in 1 mg. increments, until you begin to feel the medication’s effects. Once you’ve reached this point, you should stick with that dose for at least four days. If at this point, you continue to feel relief, then there’s no need to increase your dose further.
In the same interview, Sulak goes on to recommend that patients who have built up a tolerance to cannabis undergo an initial two-day period without using cannabis, before beginning a microdosing regiment.
What Microdosing Methods Work Best?
Legal cannabis products such as edibles, oils, and tinctures are ideal for microdosing since it is much easier to control your dosage. When looking for these products at your local dispensary, try to find ones dosed more conservatively, to make microdosing even easier. A tincture containing 5 mg. of THC per mL. will be much easier to microdose with than say a tincture with 20 mg.
Can You Microdose By Smoking?
When it comes to the plethora of legal cannabis products out there, not all are well suited to microdosing.
Microdosing while vaping or smoking medical marijuana is possible, though it may prove difficult to keep dosing consistent. Taking a single puff and waiting to see if you get the desired effect may work, but you never really know exactly how much cannabinoids you are taking in. Because of this, recreating the desired effect later on while microdosing may be difficult.
What Conditions Respond Best to Microdosing?
Higher doses of marijuana can sometimes lead to difficulty concentrating and anxiety; that’s why conditions such as depression, anxiety, and pain are especially well suited to microdosing. Not a lot of research has been completed in this area, but anecdotally many patients are beginning to find better success with microdosing than when taking larger doses of marijuana.
In one study conducted with cancer patients who were unresponsive to traditional pain management strategies, low, medium, and high doses of Nabiximols (a cannabis-based medication) were administered. In the group of patients who received the lowest doses, the greatest reduction in pain was achieved. In the higher dose group, the pain was actually made worse.
Another study done on patients suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) showed that a low dose of the synthetic cannabinoid Nabilone was able to relieve their symptoms of PTSD, while also helping with insomnia, nightmares, and even pain.
Microdosing Marijuana For Pain Relief
As we have previously reported, there is conclusive evidence that cannabinoids are effective for the treatment of chronic pain in adults. There is also evidence that low-dose THC formulations can provide pain relief without the intoxicating effects associated with higher-dose THC products. A double-blind study provided 27 patients suffering from chronic pain with a single inhaled dose of 0.5mg THC, 1mg THC, or a placebo. Pain intensity was assessed at measured intervals after administration, and each patient’s cognitive performance was evaluated using the Cambridge Neuropsychological Test Automated Battery.
The authors reported that:
- Both doses, but not the placebo, demonstrated a significant reduction in pain intensity compared with baseline and remained stable for 150 minutes.
- Adverse events were mostly mild and resolved spontaneously.
- There was no evidence of consistent impairments in cognitive performance.
In concluding remarks, researchers stated:
This feasibility trial demonstrated that a metered-dose cannabis inhaler delivered precise and low THC doses.
Microdosing Marijuana For PTSD
We have previously reported that CBD may block PTSD memories and there are indications that low-dose THC may also mitigate some symptoms of PTSD. A review of literature published in the journal BMC Psychiatry concluded:
At low doses, THC can enhance the extinction rate and reduce anxiety responses.
And that:
Current evidence from healthy humans and PTSD patients supports the THC value to suppress anxiety and aversive memory expression without producing significant adverse effects if used in low doses or when associated with CBD.
In a small-scale study of ten patients suffering from chronic PTSD and already on a stable medication plan, participants were given a twice-daily supplement of 5mg of orally-administered THC. The authors reported that supplementary treatment with THC created “statistically significant improvement in global symptom severity, sleep quality, frequency of nightmares and PTSD hyper-arousal symptoms,” and added that “orally absorbable delta-(9)-THC was safe and well-tolerated by patients with chronic PTSD.”
Can Microdosing Promote Relaxation & Stress Relief?
A study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence noted that relaxation and stress relief are frequently mentioned as reasons for marijuana use. To test the potential stress-relieving properties of cannabis, healthy subjects were put through a series of tests designed to induce stress. Test subjects were given either a placebo, a 7.5 mg dose of THC, or a 12.5 mg dose.
Among the findings of this study were that:
- 5mg THC dampened negative emotional responses without influencing performance.
- 5mg THC slightly but significantly increased negative affect overall.
- 5mg THC impaired TSST performance and attenuated blood pressure responses.
This led the authors to conclude:
Our findings suggest that a low dose of THC produces subjective stress-relieving effects in line with those commonly reported among cannabis users, but that higher doses may non-specifically increase negative mood.
Microdosing: THC VS. CBD
So far, we’ve mostly touched on how microdosing cannabis, and THC specifically, may provide better results than higher doses. But what about cannabidiol (CBD)?
CBD and THC appear to have similar applications, with patients reporting success in both relieving symptoms from a variety of conditions. Research shows that CBD may be particularly beneficial in patients suffering from:
If you’re interested in microdosing THC and CBD simultaneously, Sulak recommends keeping to a 1:1 ratio and beginning with just 1 mg. of each. After a few days of maintaining this dose, Sulak recommends increasing each by 1 mg. until you notice symptom relief. By following this protocol, you will be able to work up to the lowest effective dose for your condition, thus minimizing any potential unwanted effects.
When it comes to cannabis dosing, more isn’t always better. In fact, the very best dose of cannabis might be the dose you don’t immediately feel at all!
That’s according to a study put out by Syque Medical, a Tel Aviv-based medical cannabis company. Published only recently, in May of 2020, this clinical trial is the first to show that microdoses of cannabis can be just as effective as much higher doses.
Before getting into the study itself, though, let’s go over the basics.
Microdosing with THC
According to those close to the study, these findings indicate that it really is possible to get the best of both worlds. As Syqe Medical’s CEO, Perry Davidson, explains to The Times of Israel:
It’s about using the smallest amount of the drug to get the highest symptom relief, lowest side-effects and best quality of life.
And getting the best of both worlds also means avoiding unwanted side effects. According to Davidson:
Cannabis use usually comes with side effects. [We’ve] found that a microdose can give significant pain relief, similar to the pain relief from smoking cannabis, but has close to no side effects which makes it a better way of dosing.
Microdosing THC also allows one to avoid the infamous THC-induced high — at least in part. Indeed, most patients given .5mg of THC felt almost nothing (save for some pain relief, of course!).
Low-Dose THC for Cognition & Brain Health
One of the more noteworthy developments in research into the medicinal benefits of low-dose THC is the potential to slow cognitive decline and enhance brain health in older adults. A number of animal studies have provided indications of these phenomena. A study published in the May 2017 edition of Nature Medicine stated that a “low dose of delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) reversed the age-related decline in cognitive performance of mice aged 12 and 18 months.” The researchers also noted an increase in synaptic activist in test subjects, along with increased brain tissue density, and reported:
THC treatment restored hippocampal gene transcription patterns such that the expression profiles of THC-treated mice aged 12 months closely resembled those of THC-free animals aged 2 months.
A similar study involved old female mice (aged 24 months) that were provided a single 0.002 mg/kg dose of THC. This amount is about 1000th the dose typically used to study cannabinoid effects in mice. Treated mice were compared to untreated old mice and young mice for various aspects of memory and learning. The results showed that the treated mice performed significantly better than the untreated old mice, and on par with young mice, and that this enhancement lasted for at least 7 months. In addition, MRI scans revealed that treated mice exhibited a larger volume and higher tissue density in various regions of the brain as compared to untreated mice of the same age.
This led the authors to conclude:
Extremely low doses of THC that are devoid of any psychotropic effect and do not induce desensitization may provide a safe and effective treatment for cognitive decline in aging humans.
More specific suggestions for low-dose THC use were put forward in the concluding remarks of a paper published in the journal Aging. After describing the beneficial effects of administering a dose of 0.002 mg/kg THC to mice, the authors asked:
Can these surprising neuroprotective effects of ultra-low THC in mice be translated to clinical treatment in aging humans?
They went on to extrapolate an appropriate conversion of drug doses from experimental animals to humans. This conversion yielded a dose of 0.014 mg (or 14 micrograms) for an average patient of 70 kg body weight. This was noted as “an extremely low dose 100 times less than than the threshold for the conventional mental and somatic effects of THC.”
An explanation for the beneficial effects of THC on aging brains was included in a report from The American Journal Of Drug And Alcohol Abuse. The authors noted that at least a portion of the cognitive decline associated with aging was the result of “the accumulation of minor insults such as short episodes of hypoxia, transient seizures, micro emboli, exposure to neurotoxins, or local inflammatory events that occur during the lifetime.” They postulated that the neuroprotective effects of ultra-low THC might lessen these deleterious effects and trigger compensating protective and healing reactions.
Researchers concluded:
Ultra-low THC might be able to rescue the old brain and prevent, or even reverse, age-related cognitive impairments.
Microdosing with CBD
More good news: The benefits of microdosing don’t stop with THC!
CBD microdosing may allow for reduced pain and inflammation in the absence of side effects, too. Patients also report that CBD microdosing may combat anxiety and depression.
Here’s to hoping that studies begin to uncover more CBD-specific benefits soon!
Microdosing study: Important findings
Syqe Medical’s scientists set out to learn more about microdosing. They gave 27 patients with chronic pain (reporting pain levels of at least six out of 10) one of the following treatment options:
- .5mg of inhaled THC
- 1mg of inhaled THC
- Placebo containing no THC at all
Patients didn’t know what dosage they were getting.
When the study was complete, the 1mg THC group’s plasma THC levels peaked at over twice the .5mg group’s, implying that higher THC intake may facilitate slightly higher THC absorption. But interestingly, while the 1mg THC group also experienced side effects more than twice as intense, they didn’t experience twice the pain relief — the two groups reported 39% and 25% reductions, respectively.
Both doses resulted in a notable reduction in pain intensity: 63.64% of the patients in 0.5 mg dose, and more than 69.57% of the patients in 1.0 mg dose, demonstrated at least 2‐points reduction in pain scores.
Translation? Higher THC doses aren’t always necessary to alleviate pain.