I saw an old friend posting an image of herself inhaling whipping gas that she had put into a balloon. Funny enough, she is someone I know so I reached out to her asking why she was into these stuff and she mentioned to me that it was fruity, colorful, and tasteful. You might begin to wonder what I mean when I referred to it as whipping gas since you might not be familiar with the name.
Depending on where you are and the company producing it, it can be a lot of names including Galaxy gas which is a brand name for Nitrous oxide or what you know as laughing gas. Laughing gas started as a party drug in the 1700s and later rebranded as Whip it in the 60s now has a new name which is galaxy gas.
I read through a few medical literature and I was wondering why so many say that there is no evidence that nitrous oxide isn't addictive when clearly people are clearly saying they cannot do without it but we all know that science deals with evidence and not hearsay. This is why whipping gas is sold as a legitimate gas and not a drug unlike a person selling MDMA on the walk side of a dark street.
This is because galaxy gas or other whipping gas is produced for the purpose of making whipped cream but if we are to look at it, any random person should be able to use 1 can of gas for up to 10 times or more when making whipped cream but this is weird as there are a lot of restocking in stores making it look like people are just sitting at home making whipped cream.
I wanted to understand what was going on, so I asked her where she got it from and she mentioned that she got it from a vape store on Lagos Island. I decided to check for it in kitchen stores but it wasn't there but it is sold in some big stores and whip cream gas charger and cylinders even sold on OLX and Jumia. There is no crime being sold on this platforms and stores since it purpose is for making food but people are beginning to abuse it and use it for purposes it is not meant for. In recent times Tictok banned the word Galaxy gas and it looks like they have stopped selling canisters directly from their website but still selling to vape shops.
It isn't like we are just hearing about Nitrous Oxide for the first time. We have a long history of it among us with its first discovery being 1772 by Joseph Priestley. This creation was engineered by the Miasma believe where bad air was thought to be the reason for people falling ill. Labs were set up for the creation of gases that would be tested on patients so as to help them recover. Patients who were treated with Nitrous oxide claimed to have side effects from it and so Sir Humphry Davy who was in charge of the lab decided to test the gas himself.
When Humphry tried it out he wrote that it intoxicated him, raising his pulse and made him danced around the lab like a mad man. He also mentioned that it kept his spirit in a glow since he inhaled it. His astonishment about the gas ability allowed him to call it laughing gas and he decided to give people a try and this became a use among the upper class of England leading to its abuse. Humphry Davy while successful in his career, had a stroke at a very young age of 47 and died at 50.
Nitrous oxide is a neurotoxin that kills neurons both in the brain, the spinal cord and everywhere else in the body. It does so by oxidizing the Cobalamin ion in vitamin B12 making the body to lack vitamin B12 which is important in making Myelin which insulates nerves and allow signals to travel fast without losing strength. When vitamin B12 is absent in the body, Homocysteine begins to build up which leads to an increased risk in blood clot in the vessels leading to heart attacks, pulmonary embolism and strokes. The destruction of vitamin B12 also impairs the ability for the body to make pyrimidine and purines which are the building blocks of DNA.
For those who want to use it for just once, the pressure of the gas could lead someone to die of Asphyxia which happens as a result of lack of oxygen. But it is used in medicine why don't people die of lack of oxygen? This is because it is usually mixed with oxygen when administered in hospitals. If a person is taking it from the cannister, it can lead to Frostbite in the mouth and throat. While there is no scientific consensus that this gas is addictive, people are really doing a lot to have the gas around them despite the damage they have to their body.
Reference.
https://pure.eur.nl/ws/portalfiles/portal/117087146/Addiction
https://www.royaldevon.nhs.uk/media/j4cp12xd
https://medicine.yale.edu/news-article/nitrous-oxide
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4453489/
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC6906557/
https://journal.chestnet.org/article/S0012-3692