As Safe as it Seems?

With its medical reputation, nitrous oxide is not stymied by the same stigma as any of the ‘real’ drugs available on Bui Vien. However, the truth is actually quite different: evidence shows that habitual use of laughing gas causes very real mental and physical health problems for many people.

Dr. Robert J. Hedaya, author for Psychology Today, was shocked by the effects of laughing gas on the psychology of users. He writes, “I was wandering around the internet last night, looking for scholarly articles on something called ‘methylation pathways’, when I came across a very disturbing article on the potentially quite toxic interaction between nitrous oxide (N2O) and certain states of B12 deficiency.”

He continues: “[…] The methylation pathway I refer to above is a fundamental biochemical pathway occurring billions of times per second in the human body. It’s like the dollar bill of our economy – it keeps things moving. Methylation plays a key role in the building up and breaking down of molecules.”

So, laughing gas can impact on B12 activity if the user is deficient in this vitamin. Dr. Hedaya goes on to elaborate on these complications. Toying with these chemicals can ultimately affect the brain processes that make us happy, sane, healthy and even youthful.

When told about the risks, most users were shocked. No one we spoke to had been warned about the effects of nitrous oxide; many swore never to touch it again and almost all were visibly angry that a drug that had been marketed as harmless had the capability to permanently affect their bodies and minds.

The reality is, even light use of laughing gas can cause damage in subtle but severe ways. Dr. Nam Nguyen Canh of Victoria Healthcare told us, “Nitrous oxide inactivates cobalamin (vitamin B12). Its use in anesthesia or its abuse as an inhalant may precipitate rapid hematologic and neuropsychiatric deterioration in vitamin B12-deficient subjects.

“Harmful effects of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) often occur from either high-level short-term or low-level long-term exposures.” And perhaps most frightening: Dr. Nam continues, “Deficiency in vitamin B12 (cyanocobalamin) leads to the degeneration of the dorsal and lateral white matter of the spinal cord, producing a slowly progressive weakness, sensory ataxia, and paraesthesia, and ultimately spasticity, paraplegia, and incontinence.

“Prolonged use may produce neurologic dysfunction; patients with vitamin B12 deficiency (pernicious anemia) and those with other nutritional deficiencies (alcoholics) are at an increased risk.”