Experts warn of rise in spinal cord damage from laughing gas
‘Alarming’ health warning issued over laughing gas
- A new study in Ireland has identified an "alarming" surge in young people suffering spinal cord damage due to nitrous oxide inhalation.
- Consultant neuroradiologist Seamus Looby from Dublin's Beaumont Hospital reported 14 diagnoses of spinal cord damage from 2021 to 2024, compared to zero cases between 2012 and 2020.
- The median age of patients was 20, and while most improved after treatment, all were left with some lasting neurological damage.
- Nitrous oxide, commonly known as laughing gas, causes harm by interfering with the body's ability to process vitamin B12, leading to subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord (SACD).
- The research, the second-largest European case study of its kind, highlights the drug's potential for permanent damage, with possession now illegal in the UK since November 2023.