Daily nitrous: not the best diet

Not that I've ever considered this myself, but Wired News is reporting on some fairly ill effects from long term nitrous oxide use. For instance, one dude in Taiwan who used some indeterminate amount of nitrous every day for ten years got himself into all kinds of trouble:

In November 2003, the Taiwanese man's sense of touch became so faint that he could barely handle chopsticks. Even worse: he felt sensations similar to electrical shocks in his neck and legs.

At Taipei Veterans General Hospital, Chia-Yi Lin, Kwong-Kum Liao, and their colleagues examined their patient with an MRI scan. Part of his spinal column had degenerated. That was no surprise since laughing gas interferes with the production of myelin, a fatty coating that surrounds nerves and helps them send signals.

In the January 2007 issue of Clinical Toxicology, Lin and Liao explained that the gas inactivates vitamin B12 and the junkie was already running low on that nutrient. Daily doses of the gas for ten years worsened his dietary deficiency, leading to the severe neurological damage.

Doesn't that just sound delightful? But wait - there's more!

The following September, a correspondence to the Medical Journal of Australia described a 20-year-old woman that developed paralysis in her legs after inhaling ten to twenty canisters of whipped cream propellant per day for almost two weeks....

Blood tests showed that her kidneys were failing, she was anemic, and her vitamin B12 was very low. With such a complicated set of symptoms, the doctors were unsure of what was wrong. As they sat their patient up to take a spinal fluid sample, her heart rate slowed to a deadly crawl. Responding quickly, the physicians revived the imperiled woman with CPR and transferred her to an intensive care unit.

Michaela Cartner, a doctor at Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane, said in her report that the patient recovered partially after receiving doses of vitamin B12 and the amino acid methionine. Both of those chemicals helped to rebuild the damaged myelin coating around her nerve fibers. Seven months later, and after an aggressive rehabilitation program, the unfortunate girl could walk again.

I know no one out there has any daily nitrous experience to contradict these medical reports... right? Right??? Ahem, all I mean to say is, wow, hey, look out, kids! I'll spare you the obligatory "no laughing matter" joke, but just this once.