"I have MS. The treatment plan recommended was CBD:THC ratio of 20:1. How often should I take it? That wasn’t stated. Thanks."
MS is a very complicated disease and it requires a multilevel approach. Most of the information comes from antidotal results but there have been a few studies done often with conflicting outcome because western medicine wants to look at one factor excluding all of their factors but our bodies don’t work that way.
I highly encourage you to have the 23andMe.com genetic test done and you will find your chromosomes in the upper right under your name. You might choose to use a fictitious name and date of birth to register the Kit just for privacy sake. Once you have done the test and received your results please obtain a methylation analysis, I like the one done by geneticgenie.org because it is easy-to-read. Consider reading Dr. Amy Yasko’s book, ‘Feel Good, Nutrigenomics, your roadmap to health’, because she will start to teach you about the importance of eliminating neurotoxins from your environment, especially your diet. Be certain you have checked your vitamin D level because most MS patients are horribly low in vitamin D3 increasing the risk of neurological damage. Do not take extra calcium but do eat greens in your diet. Too much calcium, such as supplements will flood the nerve with calcium destroying the nerve function.
As far as cannabis is concerned, very high CBD/low THC in a sublingual tincture, without alcohol and preferably from organic plants will start to reduce the inflammatory disease in the body. CBD should be started low dose and spread out through the day until you know your blood pressure is stable and that should take approximately 1-5 days depending on how cannabis friendly your body happens to be. I am encourage patients to get the highest CBD, like a 28:1 tincture. Start with five drops, four times a day but as soon as your blood pressure is stable go to 10 drops twice a day. You will not feel the full results of CBD’s for approximately 3 weeks because they don’t make you high. At three weeks you should be feeling good and tolerating stress much better and some of your nerve function may have started to return. You can continue to go up on your dose of CBD tincture, you may want to go to 10 drops three times a day or 15 drops twice a day. If you are getting good response hold the dosage at this level until it seems that it has plateaued and then consider going a little higher. CBD stops inflammation but many foods increase inflammation. Try to eliminate most Omega six and Omega nine foods in your diet because they cause inflammation. You can take Omega three, and your genetic chart with methylation analysis will give us an excellent idea of what nutrients need to be added to your plan to take the stress off your body and start healing. In the meantime, eliminate all dairy from animals and all commercial foods. If you have MTHFR 1298, you are predisposed to neurological disease. Just because you have a snp (Single nucleotide polymorphism) in your genetics, it does not mean you have to manifest disease but you must know the roadblock and design a detour around the roadblock so you can get your body back again or at least reduce any further damage. Good luck, you can reverse this disease with enough knowledge and you have a direct feedback on how it’s working but I can’t stress enough how important it is that you have your vitamin D level checked. You need both 25-OHD, the inactive form and you need the 1,25-dihydroxy vitamin D measured also because this is the active form and the form excreted by your kidneys. We must know that when you’re taking vitamin D you’re your kidneys. Zinc is another important nutrient but I usually recommend that you buy organic quinoa that you can sprout and eat raw added in small amounts to your food.
I know I answered a lot more than your question, I hope you don’t mind but it is important for you to understand this is a multilevel disease that does not have a simple answer because there is no one pill or exact right dose that will work to resolve this problem.
drolson
I’m sorry to hear about your diagnosis, but glad that you’ve reached out to find out about the right CBD dosage for your condition. Of course, everyone is different so the right dosage of CBD — and THC if you want it — might take a little bit of experimentation to find. As Dr. Olson said, a tincture will probably be your best bet. Find the highest ratio of CBD:THC, you can and start off with 3-4 drops three times a day. See how that goes for a a while, then see if you want to up your CBD dosage.
Below is an article we wrote about studies that show cannabis can help with MS. In the article there are links to several studies that detail cannabis protocols for MS, including CBD dosage. In one study from 2005, they started out giving participants 2.5 mg of THC and 1.25 mg of CBD twice a day. They did take some time to adjust for each patient’s weight and biochemistry, so some had their THC and CBD dosage upped, but to no more than 25 mg of THC per day. I’m not a doctor, but I hope the information I provided gives you a good place to start. Good luck!
gabriella
Multiple Sclerosis is an incredibly challenging disease to treat as you well know. The relatively good news is that recent research has shown cannabis to be effective in treating MS. In 2003 there was the largest study done to date on the affect of marijuana which showed improvement with "pain, spasms, spasticity and sleep quality in participants who used whole-plant cannabis-based medicine (CBM) extracts or tetrahydrocannabinol (THC)". It has also been shown to help with neuropathic pain. You can reference this study in the article I have posted below.
In terms of CBD dosage specifically, it is hard to tell anyone how much or what to take with cannabis as we all react differently. In terms of my own pain, which was caused by migraines, I found a high ratio CBD tincture used daily in combination with a high ration vape pen, to do the trick. A high ratio tincture might be 20:1 (CBD:THC) or 18:1 or even 8:1. A high ratio vape pen might be the strain ACDC or Electra Tsu (for instance) and be 3:1. In either of these cases, it would not be psychoactive due to the high ratio of non psychoactive CBD.
In my own experience, and what I have seen anecdotally with others, it is important to use CBD consistently and daily, to see results with ongoing pain. In terms of your own CBD dosage, go low and slow and see what your tolerance is. Try the suggested dosage on the label and go from there. I hope this helps, this expresses my opinion only and I am not a doctor.
pamelahadfield
