why is it that we use milk or albumin as an antidote for heavy metal poisoning?

Answer 1

the concept is called chelation.

"Chelators are used in chemical analysis, as water softeners,as shampoos as preservatives, and in medicine (chelation therapy), where they are employed to safely bind with poisonous metal agents such as mercury, arsenic, or lead to stabilize them and allow them to be excreted without further interaction with the body."

"Fortunately, there are numerous automatic mechanisms in the body that help to control iron, many by chelation--compounds that bind to a toxic substance (such as iron) and render it nontoxic or nonactive. Albumin, a simple protein found in blood, acts as a chelator by loosely binding to iron."

Answer 2

Hi
Albumin can chelate metal ions.The bond formed is called a coordinate covalent bond.Since proteins are made of amino acids awhich have various charged groups they can interact with metal ions[as in hemoglobin].Also albumin and other proteins like trasferrin are natural carriers of metal ions in the blood.

Answer 3

In fact although the substances you mention are used for that purpose, the most effective treatment is actually a substance called 'activated charcoal' (See link)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Activated_carbon

(near bottom of the page)

Answer 4

because it obviously has some sort of stuff in it that counteracts the poisoning

Answer 5

because they act very quickly, and travel thtrogh the gut taking impurites with them.