To microdose or not?
And what's this ultra microdosing?
This article from Leafly was published:
Microdosing is typically when Cannabis is consumed at low doses because of what the article calls biphasic dose-dependency, or what I refer to in education as the J point curve.
Microdosing* when using THC as the dosing chemical, I generally start off at 2.5 mg; particularly for those under 21, who use multiple medications, have drug interactions, or co-morbidities. Why 2.5 mg? Well at the NJ dispensaries things typically come in 5 or 10mg. It makes it easier. Can you imagine me recommending 1 to 2 mg as in this article? Oh the 5th grade math!
I recommend all patients microdose, until we have an individualized metabolism issue, which we can test for now. In the article, it eludes to beneficial effects of long term dosing. A little every day seems to help with anxiety, sleep and pain, versus the typical opioid and NSAID rollercoaster ride that exists. It can be hard for patients to get advice that says the exact opposite method, but as clinicians we are always weighing risk versus benefit. I think microdosing seems to increase the benefit.
Speaking of risks, this article does mention that ultra microdosing (doses of .0002 mg per kg) seems to give a side effect of SLIGHT WORSENING OF MEMORY but long term effect may be beneficial and neuroprotective.
Questions (inside my 🧠)
Are the neuroprotective effects of ultra microdosing better than traditional microdosing? If not, are the initial side effects worse than traditional microdosing?
Given the low dose, we need more human studies and should be able to proceed with caution without issue.
If as a population we want the marijuana with lower amounts of THC even in America, should we demand that? Can these large companies poll their users to get it right? Maybe an average of 18% THC is too high as legalization expands.
If you unable to tolerate microdosing, is there an individual metabolism issue that we can address just for this population to abate side effects? (Yes you may actually need thought and help with dosing to treat a condition).
So everyone based on this read, I'd say the only benefit that we can see, currently for sure, is a financial one! If the average dose of an ultra microdosing is 14 MICROgrams for a 150 lb person. Then that would mean 714 doses in one 10mg dose. If you were to do three times a day dosing on average ONE 10 MG DOSE WOULD LAST FOR 238 DAYS! Well we might see why the marijuana business would not want this. 😲
Voting for unbiased research is always important. We need science to help, yep even with weed.
Peace yall.
-Dr. Chandler
What is Microdosing?...The short answer is, it depends. There is tremendous variance in the amount of THC that will result in feeling high. This can be affected by individual differences in liver metabolism, genetics of cannabinoid receptors, and previous usage, to name a few.
Leafly.com