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Comment by analyte123 | Hacker News Reader

>While Hadland says it would take a lot of repeated heavy use of nitrous oxide to see these effects, over time such use could also cause permanent neurological issues.

This is not a could. Repeated abuse of nitrous, perhaps as little as daily use over 2 months, does cause neurological issues, including spinal cord damage and paralysis [1].

[1] https://sci-hub.ru/https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31625167/

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There's a lot of really bad anecdotal horror stories about B12 problems from chronic NO2 use. You don't want it to happen to you. If you absolutely want to try N02, don't use it more than a couple times a month.

Other risk factors for low B12 are opiate use, alcohol use and finally eating vegan. The biggest risks are stacking any of those lifestyle choices on top of Nitrous Overuse.

"Abuse" is such a vague term. For context, the amount is 100+ canisters/day

> Most patients also had psychiatric symptoms. Nearly every patient estimated using 100 or more canisters of nitrous oxide per day in the months before being seen. Four patients also reported engaging in B12 supplementation (both oral and parenteral), aiming to circumvent the harmful sequelae of prolonged nitrous oxide misuse.

100 chargers is not an enormous amount. That’s two normal sized boxes and when each one gets you high for 20 seconds it’s not hard to understand how you can rip through a box. Not trying to be dramatic here, I don’t consider people doing a couple whippets at a festival a public health issue, but from a harm reduction perspective the difference between occasional bouts and regular use of nitrous is somewhat distinct compared to other drugs.

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