Last month’s Microdosing with Cannabis article was popular with newsletter readers and certainly had me thinking about trying a microdose regimen myself, at least to make sure that I was taking the optimal dose for my condition. I take CBD tincture for anxiety and to improve my focus and it works marvelously. Setting one’s optimal dose means taking personal responsibility for how you feel, I wondered if my optimal dose would turn out to be a microdose?

The first step to embarking on a microdosing protocol is to cleanse your ECS ( Endocannabinoid System) of phyto-cannabinoids. This process takes a mere 48 hour abstinence from cannabis to bring the ECS to baseline. In plainspeak this meant I had to stop taking my CBD tincture and any other cannabinoids for two days. Needless to say I did not begin this cannabinoid cleanse until after the New Year’s celebrations! On January 6th I started my cannabis fast, as I mentioned I take CBD for anxiety and to enhance my focus so the weekend was a good time to fast as I was at home relaxing eating Rosco Des Res sweet bread for Epiphany. By Sunday I was feeling a little edgy so I took an uphill walk and looked out over the city and across the Bay which really lifted my spirits and made me hungry!

My regular CBD protocol is approximately 50 drops daily; in the morning I take 20 drops, mid afternoon another 10 drops, at bedtime another 15. I’m accounting for extra drops with my calculation of drops a day.

I decided that my microdose regimen would look like this: morning 5 drops, afternoon 5 drops, bedtime 5 drops. I was not convinced that this was going to be sufficient for me as I looked ahead at my busy, potentially stressful, upcoming week!

Monday Jan 8: Morning dose of 5 drops - I held the drops sublingually for a long time, I noticed that the low dose was less strongly flavored and didn’t have the alcohol burn sensation which I sometimes feel at my regular 20 drop morning dose. Mid-afternoon 5 drops , felt alert and energetic on my drive home despite the dark and the rain! Bed time 5 drops, no sleeplessness.

Tuesday Jan 9: Followed regime, felt fine all day, slept well.

Wednesday Jan 10: Followed regime, had a super stressful day but managed not to crumble! Felt strong effect from the mid-afternoon dose - elevated mood and good energy. No sleep issues.

Thursday Jan 11: Followed regime. Busy driving day - out to SFO and then over to Petaluma and back to San Francisco. Felt very stressed in the morning and doubled my morning dose to 10 drops and felt better! Raised midday dose to 10 drops, and went to sleep easily on 5 drops. I woke up in the early hours because I was cold. I got an extra quilt and made a hot water bottle but still struggled to get back to sleep. I took 5 drops of Synergy’s CBD/CBN tincture and fell asleep. (The next day I realized that it had been a full moon which often disrupts my usual sleep pattern!)

Friday Jan 12: Started with a 5 drop dose in the morning, but felt unsettled and took another 5 drops. At midday I decided to take 10 drops again and I did the same at bedtime and had a good eight hour rest.

Saturday Jan 13: I decided that my microdose protocol needs to be double what I started with. At 10 drops, 3 times a day I get the relief from anxiety and calm focus that I need. I took an unmeasured significant dose of broad spectrum cannabis! Fell asleep without the bedtime dose!

Sunday Jan 14: Followed my new 10 drop per dose regime. Felt good, had plenty of physical energy, calm mindset, slept well.

So, in conclusion, my microdose experiment was a good exercise in assessing my optimal CBD dosage. My microdose at 10% of my regular dose wasn’t enough but I did reset my dose slightly lower than it was.

I am starting to take Synergy Immunity CBDA/CCGA capsules daily now too because of the increase in Covid cases locally.

My opinion is that the most useful part of the experiment was the reset achieved by 2 day cannabinoid cleanse before starting the microdose protocol. The cleanse was definitely a challenge for me but well worth the effort.

If you are thinking about trying a microdose protocol the best advice I have is to plan your two day cleanse on a weekend or whenever you have the time to stay home and relax, make it easy on yourself!

I used Synergy’s #102 AC/DC 24:1 CBD:THC alcohol tincture for this microdosing protocol.