☠ WARNING ☠ Be careful with Nitrous Oxide - nerve damage, paralysis, anemia, high homocysteine.

[yaesutom]

I was doing lots of nitrous since Covid (2020) and took high dose methyl B-12 and it still caught up to me. Last time was in June with those big tanks they sell at head shops. I used to get like 4 of the 650g ones for a session, sometimes 2-3 times a week. It’s the most addictive most fun drug lol..

Anyways, last time I did it, a slow numbing effect started ramping up the next day (even loading up on tons of B-12) and kept building and started making it near impossible to walk. It kept getting slowly worse so went to the hospital. It was throwing tons more stuff out of wack.. like blood tests would be swinging all over the place for several things.

Thankfully most of it did go away after 2 months but I still sometimes notice a nerve damage buzzing sensation if I tip my head downward. I can walk fine and I don’t notice any mental effects so that’s good. I was taking B-12 the entire time so I would guess that people who do much less of it without taking B12 would have this stuff happen quicker/with less use.

The numbing effect on feet/hands also did go away. This experience was enough to get me to stop finally and I don’t crave it much although I do miss it… there’s no safer drug like it which sucks. It’s such a fun time. It’s like a guaranteed positive spiritual trip.

I used to buy 4 x 50 packs of whippets before they were selling those tanks for a session and just did one at a time (well.. the good quality ones that weren’t stingy on the gas in them) listening to music. Sooo fun. Sooo expensive though. The tanks started to become cheaper and so I prob was doing way more damage with those.

———
How another thing I’m puzzled about is I think all that nitrous may have somehow got rid of years of depression. Maybe I damaged some part of my mind that was making me depressed? I just don’t have all the negative thoughts anymore but maybe that was my own doing. I started forcefully telling the negative inner voice to shut the f up anytime it said something dumb, not useful, too negative.

I used to go to work for a full day then halfway thru the day I’d start fantasizing about what I was gonna do on my trip after work. I’d get off work and RUN to the head shop sooo excited. I wasted so much money but damn it was fun.

I just thought I’d share since it seems like nitrous use is on the rise with headshops every mile block selling them.. it can become super addictive super fast. I’ve never experienced such cravings and impulses with any other substance.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

Popular theory behind ketamine's effectiveness against depression is its NMDA antagonism causing some sort of cascading effect. Nitrus targets the same receptors so it stands to reason that it might have a similar anti-depresent effect.

 

[Mycophile]

I was doing lots of nitrous since Covid (2020) and took high dose methyl B-12 and it still caught up to me. Last time was in June with those big tanks they sell at head shops. I used to get like 4 of the 650g ones for a session, sometimes 2-3 times a week. It’s the most addictive most fun drug lol..

Anyways, last time I did it, a slow numbing effect started ramping up the next day (even loading up on tons of B-12) and kept building and started making it near impossible to walk. It kept getting slowly worse so went to the hospital. It was throwing tons more stuff out of wack.. like blood tests would be swinging all over the place for several things.

Thankfully most of it did go away after 2 months but I still sometimes notice a nerve damage buzzing sensation if I tip my head downward. I can walk fine and I don’t notice any mental effects so that’s good. I was taking B-12 the entire time so I would guess that people who do much less of it without taking B12 would have this stuff happen quicker/with less use.

The numbing effect on feet/hands also did go away. This experience was enough to get me to stop finally and I don’t crave it much although I do miss it… there’s no safer drug like it which sucks. It’s such a fun time. It’s like a guaranteed positive spiritual trip.

I used to buy 4 x 50 packs of whippets before they were selling those tanks for a session and just did one at a time (well.. the good quality ones that weren’t stingy on the gas in them) listening to music. Sooo fun. Sooo expensive though. The tanks started to become cheaper and so I prob was doing way more damage with those.

———
How another thing I’m puzzled about is I think all that nitrous may have somehow got rid of years of depression. Maybe I damaged some part of my mind that was making me depressed? I just don’t have all the negative thoughts anymore but maybe that was my own doing. I started forcefully telling the negative inner voice to shut the f up anytime it said something dumb, not useful, too negative.

I used to go to work for a full day then halfway thru the day I’d start fantasizing about what I was gonna do on my trip after work. I’d get off work and RUN to the head shop sooo excited. I wasted so much money but damn it was fun.

I just thought I’d share since it seems like nitrous use is on the rise with headshops every mile block selling them.. it can become super addictive super fast. I’ve never experienced such cravings and impulses with any other substance.

This is terrifying as far as your near inability to walk.

I like to do nitrous sometimes so I'm making a thread about it, but I really only use it one month out of the year for my summer vacation. However, I do have mini-binge sessions where I'll do a whole bunch of balloons in an hour or two and now I'm worrying about whether or not I should simply never touch the stuff again.

How much were you doing that you were getting to this point where you were seriously messing yourself up? Do you think a person can do balloons for like an hour, maybe once every 3 days over the course of a few weeks and not end up completely fucked up?

I saw this video and it scared the shit out of me:

 

[meeer]

I was doing lots of nitrous since Covid (2020) and took high dose methyl B-12 and it still caught up to me. Last time was in June with those big tanks they sell at head shops. I used to get like 4 of the 650g ones for a session, sometimes 2-3 times a week. It’s the most addictive most fun drug lol..

Anyways, last time I did it, a slow numbing effect started ramping up the next day (even loading up on tons of B-12) and kept building and started making it near impossible to walk. It kept getting slowly worse so went to the hospital. It was throwing tons more stuff out of wack.. like blood tests would be swinging all over the place for several things.

Thankfully most of it did go away after 2 months but I still sometimes notice a nerve damage buzzing sensation if I tip my head downward. I can walk fine and I don’t notice any mental effects so that’s good. I was taking B-12 the entire time so I would guess that people who do much less of it without taking B12 would have this stuff happen quicker/with less use.

The numbing effect on feet/hands also did go away. This experience was enough to get me to stop finally and I don’t crave it much although I do miss it… there’s no safer drug like it which sucks. It’s such a fun time. It’s like a guaranteed positive spiritual trip.

I used to buy 4 x 50 packs of whippets before they were selling those tanks for a session and just did one at a time (well.. the good quality ones that weren’t stingy on the gas in them) listening to music. Sooo fun. Sooo expensive though. The tanks started to become cheaper and so I prob was doing way more damage with those.

———
How another thing I’m puzzled about is I think all that nitrous may have somehow got rid of years of depression. Maybe I damaged some part of my mind that was making me depressed? I just don’t have all the negative thoughts anymore but maybe that was my own doing. I started forcefully telling the negative inner voice to shut the f up anytime it said something dumb, not useful, too negative.

I used to go to work for a full day then halfway thru the day I’d start fantasizing about what I was gonna do on my trip after work. I’d get off work and RUN to the head shop sooo excited. I wasted so much money but damn it was fun.

I just thought I’d share since it seems like nitrous use is on the rise with headshops every mile block selling them.. it can become super addictive super fast. I’ve never experienced such cravings and impulses with any other substance.

I'm not gonna lie, but for once i just read half way (to the third paragraph) and decided to comment so i may update this comment or add a bit more, but i am sick and tired of people jumping the gun on vitamins and non endogenous vitamins and all these complexes people are taking. 1.) taking any form of supplement is almost never going to give you a 1 to 1 of properly taking these in through nutrition and healthy life style. 2.) Taking ANYTHING in a constant battle against something your consuming that is constantly inhibiting your bodies ability to keep its self normal is essentially akin to using a upper and a downer, but in a slightly different way... point is.. your putting strain on your body and system. That being said
So with that combined no matter how much of that vitamin you take or use you aren't just trying to fight deficiency as the nitro its self inhibits your body from even using the b12 properly. There seems to be a huge miss understanding in how these things work we aren't just terminals where you put shit in and that's that.

I don't attempt to be mean here or make fun of what you did hell I did a lot of nitros in my day, but it was fool hardy to think you could essentially hold off longer with the regular B12 use while it certainly may of done some good overall the mitigation on how much and how often you used the nitros goes a long way in your health coming out of all of this.

Finally I don't trust the gas to be as clean these days now its blowing up and hell they're probably a fully synthetic version of the gas in these canisters by now and god knows what difference in affect that may have on the body, don't even get me started on the flavourings they now have.


K came back and read the final paragraphs and once again without malice I have to point out how you named this drug as nothing safer, which you starkly contrast in your writing here. Clearly this shit is not harmless or safe by any means, we just have far less data.

 

[meeer]

This is terrifying as far as your near inability to walk.

I like to do nitrous sometimes so I'm making a thread about it, but I really only use it one month out of the year for my summer vacation. However, I do have mini-binge sessions where I'll do a whole bunch of balloons in an hour or two and now I'm worrying about whether or not I should simply never touch the stuff again.

How much were you doing that you were getting to this point where you were seriously messing yourself up? Do you think a person can do balloons for like an hour, maybe once every 3 days over the course of a few weeks and not end up completely fucked up?

I saw this video and it scared the shit out of me:

Some people genuinely will be fine and go life times with use, if you want the real use of nitros or hippy crack, I suggest using it as a potentiator for LSD and Shrooms and other heavy tripps to go far deeper into heavier trips but not comitting to a long many hours of tripping. As you can kind of go in and out of heavier tripps with the nitros. That being said this should never, be seen as a safe drug.

 

[yaesutom]

Oh what I meant was that I wish there was another equivalent drug that was safe and provided the same experience.

The 5000ug B12 definitely helped prolong side effects, I know because I experimented with doing nitrous with and without and the b12 def helped. So for harm reduction purposes it’s a good idea to take lots of b12 in the days leading up to doing it and then during and after. Also I was getting tested and my normal levels of b12 are very low. I’m only saying that because I know people will probably do it anyways after reading this and they might not know you can make it do “less damage” (but still damage) by using super doses of b12.

They did an MRI and didn’t find anything wrong with my brain but binging nitrous can do a similar type of damage as multiple sclerosis. I was probably doing a little damage each binge until it became noticeable.

BTW I really hate ketamine - can’t stand it, and it didn’t affect depression at all for me so I feel nitrous has other effects that I like. I also hated PCP.

 

[Mjäll]

4 of those small tanks is equal to about 320 cartridges.

Cutoff for B12 inactivation is about 40 carts iirc. Maybe can find the study later.

My own record is i think 110 carts in one night which felt insanely much.

Best practice is <40 carts per session, probably no more often than 6 times a year.

 

[Pfafffed]

I'm pretty good with 2-4 carts, only when I trip. Nitrous does nothing to me when I'm otherwise sober. Lucky for me, I guess?

 

[JackARoe]

Last Sat night I did 4 carts. (had 50 for 2 years lol) 2 and 2 as an attempt at being antidepressant before bed. I woke up the next day in a good mood, but I attribute that to the good sleep I just had!

So with that combined no matter how much of that vitamin you take or use you aren't just trying to fight deficiency as the nitro its self inhibits your body from even using the b12 properly. There seems to be a huge miss understanding in how these things work we aren't just terminals where you put shit in and that's that.

You know that is good info for a board that deals with harm reduction. Thanks. It is something most people should know Balance is better than vitamins. But even a slight mitigation would help I guess. But not count on it.

Finally I don't trust the gas to be as clean these days now its blowing up and hell they're probably a fully synthetic version of the gas in these canisters by now and god knows what difference in affect that may have on the body, don't even get me started on the flavourings they now have.

Flavorings would be strange, but N2O is a simple molecule probably not in any danger running out. Hopefully synthetic crap is hard to do here. But yeah I get it, I get mad at the state of the drugs people buy online and on the street these days. But this is interesting.

I honestly did not know so many people can do so much nitrous. Is this thread a contender to be a sticky??

 

[Didgital]

Is this thread a contender to be a sticky??

I would support that.

While I generally consider N2o as mostly benign, it really does have a darkside. I know of a girl that was in a wheelchair from the n2o induced nerve damage.

Scary stuff.

 

[Skorpio]

I’ve heard b12 intramuscular injections are the gold standard for low b12. You don’t have to worry about GI absorption and saturating transporters that way.

 

[negrogesic]

I’ve heard b12 intramuscular injections are the gold standard for low b12. You don’t have to worry about GI absorption and saturating transporters that way.

Yeah I always went with IM B12. They actually sell veterinary grade injectable B12 on amazon, works well.

I'm pretty good with 2-4 carts, only when I trip. Nitrous does nothing to me when I'm otherwise sober. Lucky for me, I guess?

Nitrous will definitely do something for you if you consume it in a sustained fashion (i.e., a continuous flow of gas, not a few balloons). It is a powerful stand-alone drug, but like with any drug, you need a sufficient blood level to achieve full effects. But it takes some effort to get there. The effects of a few balloons are very different than what happens after youve inhaled 30 chargers in short succession. It is an immersive, full-blown dissociative anesthetic.

Personally, i used about a pound of nitrous oxide daily for around 18 months, no issue. While nitrous oxide will eventually cause harm to anyone with high enough doses for prolonged periods of time, some seem more susceptible to demyelinating diseases/disorders. Perhaps those who wind up in wheelchairs after fairly modest use were otherwise destined to develop multiple sclerosis later and life? Who knows.

 

[Electrum1]

In her case study, Gardin reports that her team’s recent research was inspired by a man in his 30s who developed numbness, weakness, and difficulty walking after chronic nitrous oxide use. He had no prior issues with mobility. After taking a thorough clinical history, the clinicians learned that he had been using nitrous oxide daily for four to five months.

The team’s first step in trying to understand what was going on was to order a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scan, which revealed abnormalities in the man’s dorsal column. The dorsal column is a central nervous system pathway associated with sensory function. They diagnosed him with subacute combined degeneration of the spinal cord, which was causing his symptoms.

Next, the team looked for any concomitant causes of vitamin B12 deficiency. They performed a blood test and found that the patient’s level of B12 was in the normal range. However, further testing revealed he had elevated levels of two metabolites of vitamin B12—methylmalonic acid and homocysteine. “This gave us a clue that the patient had some sort of difficulty with B12 metabolism,” says Gardin.

From there, the clinicians ran tests looking for antibodies to intrinsic factor and gastric parietal cells. This would signal pernicious anemia, a rare autoimmune disorder that can also impair vitamin B12 absorption. They found this was the case in their patient.

Nitrous Oxide Effects Are Reversible With Early Treatment

Recreational use of nitrous oxide, also known as “laughing gas, “whippets,” or “whippits,” can cause severe, permanent damage. But a timely response can treat

medicine.yale.edu

 

[perpetualdawn]

I'm pretty good with 2-4 carts, only when I trip. Nitrous does nothing to me when I'm otherwise sober. Lucky for me, I guess?

My experience is similar. When I take nitrous whilst sober it has an effect, but it feels pointless, it's just an anaesthetic.

Combined with a psychedelic trip it is definitely extra trippy, but I don't find myself really drawn to it. And I always have the sense that it's unhealthy, I wonder what kind of industrial impurities, oil residues and other gases are in the gas since it's not really manufactured for inhaling.

I'm also wary of being anoxic - I tend to go pretty hard on just 1 or two balloons, exhaling completely, inhale 100% nitrous and I have a bit lung capacity and can hold my breath for an unusually long time. So I never know if that is physically safe or not, like does that cause sufficient oxygen deprivation to cause brain damage? I know our impulse to breathe comes from CO2 buildup in our blood, rather than lack of O2, and since N2O doesn't metabolize into CO2, maybe this is bypassing our normal gasp reflex and causing damage. Maybe someone here has somehting to say about that. I think in the hospital etc they mix it with oxygen or normal air.

 

[JackARoe]

I would support that.

Ok if CK and pfafffed agree we can make it sticky. I guess as time goes on we see how excessive some use can be and it needs all the warnings that come along with it.

 

[Cheshire_Kat]

I have no problem with that whatsoever

 

[meeer]

Oh what I meant was that I wish there was another equivalent drug that was safe and provided the same experience.

The 5000ug B12 definitely helped prolong side effects, I know because I experimented with doing nitrous with and without and the b12 def helped. So for harm reduction purposes it’s a good idea to take lots of b12 in the days leading up to doing it and then during and after. Also I was getting tested and my normal levels of b12 are very low. I’m only saying that because I know people will probably do it anyways after reading this and they might not know you can make it do “less damage” (but still damage) by using super doses of b12.

They did an MRI and didn’t find anything wrong with my brain but binging nitrous can do a similar type of damage as multiple sclerosis. I was probably doing a little damage each binge until it became noticeable.

BTW I really hate ketamine - can’t stand it, and it didn’t affect depression at all for me so I feel nitrous has other effects that I like. I also hated PCP.

Oh, in that case apologise I miss interpreted, I don't disagree that it is or would be beneficial to take B12 as apposed to not.

Last Sat night I did 4 carts. (had 50 for 2 years lol) 2 and 2 as an attempt at being antidepressant before bed. I woke up the next day in a good mood, but I attribute that to the good sleep I just had!


You know that is good info for a board that deals with harm reduction. Thanks. It is something most people should know Balance is better than vitamins. But even a slight mitigation would help I guess. But not count on it.


Flavorings would be strange, but N2O is a simple molecule probably not in any danger running out. Hopefully synthetic crap is hard to do here. But yeah I get it, I get mad at the state of the drugs people buy online and on the street these days. But this is interesting.

I honestly did not know so many people can do so much nitrous. Is this thread a contender to be a sticky??

And I for sure second this being a sticky thread in fact its far understated how heavily some people use this substance and its demographic is all ages. As for most people in my life that have done any sort of substance have fucked with nitros and those who haven't simply have a dirty view on it being an inhalant. Some people get caught up on semantics, however fun it has been and great it has felt, i truly do feel it is dirty after you have done it a little, and here in Aus those cartridges can vary from the same vendor in taste and mouth texture it can leave, making it genuinely feel and sometimes hit worse or more dirty.

 

[Shinji Ikari]

I came across this one last week it definitely has a dark side.

Edit: +1 for sticky put it next to the ketamine thread.

 

[negrogesic]

If you're going to be messing around with nitrous oxide tanks on any sort of regular basis you need to take it seriously. This means limiting it to periodic sessions, taking B12 intramuscularly (you can actually buy veterinary grade IM vitamin B12 vials on amazon, they work fine) , and building a device like I did which integrates oxygen gas to avoid hypoxia. And always wear a finger tip blood oxygen saturation monitor (Sp02) -- which are dirt cheap on amazon (although don't skimp and buy a $15 meter). You should not allow your SpO2 to dip below 90% for prolonged periods of time.

The following is a device I built that mixes nitrous oxide with a constant flow of 95% pure oxygen gas from an oxygen concentrator (which can be bought online without a prescription, unlike oxygen tanks -- which require an Rx). Despite going through the trouble of bulding this I actually only used it maybe 10 times because I felt like the NOS was making me feel weird afterwards for a bit, and I'm too busy these days to spend time feeling weird. A decade ago when I blasted around a pound of gas every day for 18 months, witn no supplemental O2, i was unemployed and living at home. That is no longer the case so I can't afford to feel out of sorts for a while like I used to. I"m just glad these new big tanks were not around back then because I'm sure that my daily exposure would have higher.

Anyway, if you are regularly using tanks, you to need to build something like I built. The oxygen concentrators arent that expensive, maybe the cost of 5-6 large tanks of these consumer grade NOS tanks:



But of course, if you are inhaling nitrous oxide in high volume from these new tanks on a regular basis at high doses, without supplemental oxygen and intramuscular B12, you are definitely risking your health. Even with this setup and B12 shots you will eventually injure yourself if you push it hard enough on a daily basis. A setup like this, with a mask, also requires a trip sitter in the case of equipment failure.

 

[JackARoe]

^ God I love when negrogesic and Gary White show pictures of their set up. The ingenuity is fascinating.

@Pfafffed, what do you think? Is nitrous becoming something that we need to sticky this thread? I'm thinking of the children. Up to you.

I wonder if it would become as big as the other NBOMES and ketamine stickies. I am almost wondering of the dark sides of nitrous and who went through stuff. Honestly this is the first I even heard of a dark side other than the B12 deficiencies but I never knew that affected anyone.