Titration: Titration of a medicine means slowly increasing the dose of a medicine by very small amounts over days, weeks, or even months, to find the right dose that is effective for the individual
When introducing supplements, you may wish to consider a titration process. You may also hear my say “low and slow” which is a common approach when using essential oils too.
In some cases it’s a matter of giving the body time to adjust slowly, and for some products it may be about finding the sweet spot of dosing.
Example: CBD dosing is very individualized. So we start with a lower dose, monitor, and every 2-4 days adjust the dose by increasing the amount moderately. We monitor the results and adjust accordingly – up or down for that sweet spot. (See CBD Dosing for more specific details)
Examples:
- If YOU were to take magnesium, we know the suggested range is about 300-400mg per day. But if you take too much, you may develop loose stool. So we ramp slowly and increase until we reach that point, and then back down to the next lower dose to see if things stabilize.
- When we give too much Vitamin C – we see loose stool, so we adjust down
- Too many bones or eggshells and you’ll see stool look chalky. You need to backdown and/or change your supplementation.
- If we’re giving probiotics or digestive enzymes to a dog who has never had them, we ramp low and slow.
- *With something like milk thistle we often say 2-5mg per 10# body weight – so you start slow and ramp and every 2-3 days. For dog we may ramp to 10mg per 10# body weight.
- *With essential oils I may begin your guidance with highly diluted essential oils and eventually move you to “neat” applications, and multiple drops, multiple times a day.
Things vary. I just want you understand the term “titration” when you hear it.
Other products may have a max dose tolerance – it’s important that you start to understand the right details and don’t guess if you are uncertain.
Research. Ask as needed.