I understand something like Carbon Monoxide which physically takes up space that should have oxygen there but what about lead in my blood kills me? Is it a chemical reaction that steals nutrients? Does it puncture blood cells?
In: Chemistry
Basic chemistry lesson here.
All chemical interaction depend on the electrons around the nucleus. These form essentially the shape of the atom, and as you may know the shape of a tool determines what’s it’s good at, or a uniform true you the basic skill set of the person wearing it.
Lead is the same class of atom as carbon (same column on periodic table). It behaves very similar to carbon, it can easily combine with lots of elements into complex chains. The issue is that it is similar, not exactly the same.
To go with the uniform analogy carbon is dressed as a doctor, and so is lead. However one is an internist (adult medicine) the other is a pediatrician.
For a lot of tasks they are indistinguishable, and with just fine. And at a casual review (all the protein enzymes are capable of) they are identical. But once you really start working on the task, differences in skill sets start make a difference. Perhaps the pediatrician gets the job done, but it takes longer. Or sometimes makes a diagnosis that’s similar, but not the actual cause. The result is it is only partially treated.
Lead and carbon in the body work the same way. The lead gets integrated into a protein that now performs the task almost correct. It may take longer. Or might trigger a bit differently.
The body can’t really tell them apart, they both appear identical in most cases, and so they aren’t sorted out easily.
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