I was reading an article about lead poisoning in children and it has me wondering how lead exposure damages your brain. From a quick search it seems like it can cause obsessive compulsive tendencies, and sensory problems. Do we have an answer as to why this happens?
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Lead can substitute itself for many of the other metal ions that are useful in the body, without actually being useful itself. This includes iron in blood cells, and calcium which helps it to pass into the brain. It also binds with many enzymes, which are responsible for many of the bodies functions, and makes them less useful or completely stops them from working.
It also directly interacts with cells and proteins, producing “free radicals” which damage DNA in a similar way to radiation or ultraviolet light.
In the brain and nervous system, through a mixture of the above mechanisms, it both damages the formation of neurons, inhibits or slows down the work of neurons, and interferes with neurotransmitters. All of this has a general effect of damaging and inhibiting the brains function.
It stays in the blood and soft tissues for a relatively brief amount of time, days to weeks, but it binds very strongly with bone (and can sometimes be visible on xrays as a result of this), where it is harmless, but is then very slowly released back into the blood over years to decades, causing ongoing problems.
Children are more sensitive to the effects of lead because their brains are still developing, so inhibiting neurons formation has a much bigger overall effect, compared to a fully developed brain where the majority of neuron formation is complete. It also circulates in the blood more easily, with less lead being bound to bone, so exposure to smaller amounts can have a more potent effects.
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