What Is Clinically Effective Dose?

Why It Matters for Supplement Brands

The clinically effective dose determines whether your product can deliver on its claims. If clinical studies used 600 mg per day but your product contains only 100 mg, you cannot reliably substantiate the same claims — regardless of what the ingredient label says.

How It Works

Identifying the clinically effective dose requires:

1. **Literature review**: Examining the dosages used in clinical trials that showed positive results. 2. **Dose consistency**: Ideally, multiple studies should show benefits at similar dose ranges. 3. **Form consideration**: The dose must be specific to the same form (standardised extract vs. raw powder, specific chelation for minerals). 4. **Population relevance**: Doses effective in athletes may differ from doses effective in elderly populations.

Examples of clinically effective doses: • Ashwagandha (KSM-66): 300–600 mg/day • Curcumin (95% curcuminoids): 500–1,000 mg/day (with piperine or enhanced delivery) • Creatine monohydrate: 3–5 g/day (maintenance phase) • Magnesium glycinate: 200–400 mg elemental magnesium/day

Common Mistakes to Avoid

• ✗Putting a small 'pixie dust' amount of an ingredient in a formula just to add it to the label
• ✗Not distinguishing between the weight of the raw material and the weight of the active compound
• ✗Using a clinical dose from one form (e.g., standardised extract) to justify a claim for a different form (e.g., raw powder)
• ✗Assuming that combination products with many ingredients at sub-clinical doses are equivalent to single-ingredient clinical doses

Related Terms

See It in Action

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