One of the most important questions you’ll ask yourself when taking a CBD product is “How long will it last?”
This is especially a concern if you take CBD to alleviate chronic pain, such as pain caused by conditions such as arthritis, because you want to gain immediate relief.
Can CBD treat chronic conditions?
CBD shows promise in treating a variety of health conditions that can lead to pain and discomfort.
For example, various research has found that CBD actually inhibits the release of inflammatory agents in the body that can cause symptoms such as pain.
That said, knowing which type of CBD product to use for pain and other conditions is important so you know how much you should take in order to gain relief from unwanted symptoms that you used to have to deal with before CBD came around.
Let’s take a look at how long CBD’s effects will last – and how you can make them last even longer.
While there’s no simple answer as to how long a CBD product will last, there are some important things to consider.
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CBD Affects People Differently
There’s a reason why you need to focus on finding your right dosage of CBD – different dosages will affect people in different ways!
While your best friend might take 30mg of CBD daily and feel less pain from headaches, you might need more than that to gain relief from those painful episodes.
Pro tip: Start with a small dosage of CBD, say 25mg, and then see what happens over the course of several days.
If you don’t feel the effects from that dosage, increase it slowly. Continue doing this until you find a dosage that works the best for you.
CBD Takes Time To Work
It’s easy to assume that CBD products can give you instant relief from pain or other symptoms, but sometimes the truth is that you need to give them a bit of time to work.
When you start out with a small dosage, which is recommended for beginners, give yourself at least a week to see if it works before you increase the amount that you take so that your body can get used to it.
Bear in mind that CBD also accumulates in the body.
Different CBD Products Will Last Different Amounts Of Time
The form in which you take your CBD, such as capsules or tinctures, will make a huge difference in how long its effects will last.
Here’s a rundown of the most common CBD products and what to expect after taking them.
Tinctures
These are concentrated liquids taken by mouth and it usually takes up to 30 minutes for you to feel their effects.
It’s recommended that you put the drops of the tincture underneath your tongue so that they don’t have to be digested before they can enter your bloodstream.
After that, the effects of the CBD will last between four and six hours.
Capsules
Capsules need to be digested by your stomach before the CBD can enter your bloodstream, so you might have to wait up to an hour for the effects to be felt.
Once they’re in your bloodstream they can make you feel effects for six to eight hours.
Due to how long they can last in your body, CBD capsules are best to take when you don’t need instant relief but can do with relief from pain or anxiety over the course of many hours.
Edible CBD Products
CBD candies are a popular example of edible CBD products that are becoming more mainstream.
Since these also have to be digested before the CBD can enter the bloodstream, they will take up to an hour before working and will last you between four and six hours.
Topical Products
Putting CBD-rich creams and ointments on your skin can be a great way to give you more immediate results.
This is because research that was published in the Trends in Pharmacological Sciences journal found that our skin has an endocannabinoid system that regulates biological processes.
When CBD can go directly through the skin and into the bloodstream, it can get to work faster than if the CBD has to be processed by the stomach and liver.
You can expect topical products to work within 15 minutes and last six hours.
Vaping
Vaping your CBD product means inhaling it, and this can give you instant relief. You’re looking at the CBD effects being experienced within minutes of inhaling the substance.
However, inhaling CBD has the shortest duration – you’re looking at the effects only lasting for about two hours.
Vaping is probably the best method for consuming CBD when you need quick relief, such as if you’re having a panic attack and can’t wait around for other CBD products to take effect.
Patches
You can also find CBD that comes in patches that are applied to the skin where they deliver CBD straight into the skin and bloodstream.
However these can take hours to work, and this can be inhibited by the presence of body hair if you’re putting the patch on an area of the body such as an arm or leg.
However, the good news is that you can find patches that slowly release CBD over many hours – some work for up to 96 hours!
How Long Does CBD Stay In Your Body?
It’s said that CBD can take up to five days to leave your body. However, there are different factors that can influence this process besides for what form of CBD you take.
Your Body Fat
One of the most important ones relate to your weight, body mass index (BMI), and exercise routine. CBD can’t dissolve in water; it’s fat soluble.
When it’s consumed, it gets stored in the body’s fat cells. If you exercise regularly and have less fat, your body will store CBD for shorter periods of time.
In addition to this, if you follow an active lifestyle, you will tend to have a higher metabolism.
This means that you’ll burn fat faster and also get rid of CBD much faster than other people.
How Often You Use CBD
Another important factor to consider is how often you take CBD. If you take it occasionally, this will constitute a small amount that gets eliminated from your body quickly.
If you take it regularly, or take high amounts of it, then the CBD will accumulate in your body and can remain in it for much longer.
If You Consume Food With It
Some people say you should take CBD on an empty stomach while others claim that you should take it with food.
The truth is, if you take CBD without any food it will get metabolized by the body and eliminated from it much faster than if you take CBD on a full stomach – the food you already have eaten before taking CBD will help to slow down the digestion of the CBD, as Healthline reports.
Related Questions
Can you build up a tolerance to CBD?
You can’t build a tolerance to CBD and the interesting thing about this is that you might actually find that the more you use CBD oil, the less you’ll need to feel its effects.
The reason for this is thought to be because CBD activates the body’s natural endocannabinoid system.
What does taking CBD feel like?
The experience will be different for everyone, but many people who take CBD experience feelings of relaxation.
That said, it does take some time for other effects to be revealed. Unlike THC, a compound in cannabis that makes you high, often CBD can have more subtle effects.
Will CBD make you fail a drug test?
Although it comes from the cannabis plant, CBD doesn’t contain THC (which is what makes you high), so you won’t fail a drug test.
Even if it does contain trace amounts of THC, as long as these are lower than 0.3 percent, then you’re safe.
Conclusion
If you’re wondering how long CBD will last to give you the calming and pain-relieving effects you love in it, we’ve shown you what you can expect based on different types of CBD products.
In this guide that aims to answer the question, “How long do CBD effects last?” we’ve also looked at how long CBD will last in your body, based on various factors.
Now you know how to take CBD so that it will give you the effects you love for longer!