‘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.

IN FULL

Experts warn of rise in spinal cord damage from laughing gas