With cissus I found that 1600mg 3x a day worked best for me. The total mg a day would vary depending on weight I would assume. I am at 215lbs. I did not run any other joint care type of products with it at the time, only ice
The problem with a lot of these supplements that contain multiple herbs, at least over here, is they call it a "proprietary blend" which allows the manufacturer to not list the exact amount of each ingredient, just that they are in there so it is tough to nail down doses and what is working and what not.
I did not know about the strength part of Cissus I will pay closer attention when I decide to start it up again.
As far as negatives, the only one I found was if I took an evening dose before bed it would disrupt my sleeping too, but in the form of an acidic stomach. Just altered the dosage times and was cool after that.