Salamdin seemed to be accustomed to it, and explained to An Xia that many people here have big necks, and except for being ugly, they don’t feel uncomfortable.

An Xia recalled carefully that the big neck disease in Western Xinjiang, especially in southern Xinjiang, was discovered and noticed by the state in the mid-to-late 1990s. It was discovered that the cause was the dietary structure of inland cities, which led to insufficient iodine intake and caused goiter. Then the country vigorously promoted the addition of some salt, and finally, in the late 1990s, all people in Western Xinjiang had added some salt.

Looking at the beautiful Uyghur girl in front of her, she is so big that it is not only ugly. Goiter affects her health. At first, anxiety, insomnia, weakness in limbs, and gradually develops into a rapid heartbeat, arrhythmia, palpitations and thirst, difficulty breathing, swelling of the throat, thickening of the neck, menstrual disorders, miscarriage, convex eyes, blurred vision and other complications.

At the beginning, the big neck disease was not taken seriously because it was not a malignant disease and the course of the disease lasted for a long time. All complications were not easy to detect and could be tolerated by ordinary people, which led to the big neck disease in Xijiang for decades.

An Xia waved her hand, and the little girl slowly walked towards An Xia. She took out a handful of milk candy from her bag and gave it to the little girl.

The little girl immediately picked up the candy, opened the candy paper and was about to put it in her mouth. She seemed to remember grandma, fed the first milk candy to grandma, and then ate the second one herself, and gave all the candy on her hands to grandma. Her face turned red with joy, looking at grandma.

The old Uyghur woman said something, the little girl ran aside with candy and went to play. An Xia slowly stepped forward and leaned against the old woman, asking Salamudin to help her translate. She wanted to talk to the old woman.

Salamdin nodded and sat between Anxia and the old woman. Anxia told Salamdin that she was a doctor and asked the old woman if she could let her look at her big neck. She gave the old woman a checkup.

After hearing this, the old woman nodded and untied the cloth bag wrapped around her big neck. An Xia first took the pulse for the old woman, and then checked the lesion. One of the nodules in the thyroid glands was a lump, and the others were relatively hard. The only treatment method was to supplement the iodine salt and then undergo surgical removal. Moreover, due to the disease of the big neck, the old woman had many problems with her body.

An Xia asked the old woman if she was often weak and her eyes sometimes had blurred vision, and it took a long time to get better. She was not easy to fall asleep at night and her heart beat very fast.

After hearing this, the old woman nodded repeatedly. She had all the questions An Xia said, and she called An Xia the one sent by Hu Da to save her.

An Xia told the old woman that first, she should go to the convenience store to buy iodized salt, and second, she should go to the hospital for surgery, cut off these lesions and take kelp once or twice a week, and the disease can be cured slowly.

After Salamudin finished translating, the old woman slowly lowered her head, wiped the corners of her eyes with a headscarf, and said something.

Salamdin sighed and told An Xia that the old woman's family was poor and could not afford fine salt, let alone surgery. As for what kelp is, she had never heard of it. This disease would not kill anyone, and she was like this.

An Xia's breathing was stagnant. She should have thought that the ethnic minorities in southern Xinjiang were particularly poor. Looking at the ripped skirts and patches on the headscarf, she knew that their lives were difficult.

"What kind of salt do you all eat?"

Salamdin didn't need to ask the old woman, he knew that he was not very skilled in Chinese and told An Xia that his family would eat coarse salt, like the poorer ethnic minority families who ate earthy salt.

If you can eat coarse salt, you are all families with good conditions. Many poorer places in southern Xinjiang eat earthy salt.

There are salt lakes in western Xinjiang. The salt lakes are generally coarse salt. Families like Salamuddin usually eat coarse salt, mash the coarse salt with a garlic mortar, use this to cook milk tea and bake naan, and there is also fine salt. When guests come to the family, they use fine salt when cooking.

However, many ethnic minority families are very poor. They don’t know how to farm, so they make handmade soaps, maltose, or pick some grapes from their own homes to sell. They have no income at all and can’t afford the coarse salt of the salt lake, so they eat earthy salt.

There are many saline-alkali land in Western Xinjiang. People will scrape off the white soil on the ground, then add water and stir and precipitate, and slowly boil the water with a torch. In this way, the salt in the soil will slowly precipitate and form crystal particles on the surface. Then scrape this layer of crystals and it is soil salt.

This kind of salt is cheap. Although it tastes a bit bitter, as long as you are willing to work hard, you don’t have to spend money on this kind of salt. Many people have never spent money on earth salt for generations. No one is willing to spend 50 cents to buy fine salt from a convenience store. For these families, 50 cents may only earn a few cents in a few days. Many families only earn a few dollars a month, or more than ten yuan. How could they spend 50 cents to buy salt? Moreover, eating salt a month is not enough, and they also need several bags, because ethnic minorities cook milk tea and make naan are their daily diet, and both of them require a lot of salt.

After listening to Salamudin's words, An Xia realized that she was still too poor. If she could eat fine salt, who would eat earthy salt? She asked Salamudin to ask, could she go to the old woman's house to see it?

Salamudin told Anxia that the old woman lived far away and had to walk for a long time, and the old woman's watermelon had not been sold out.

An Xia took out fifty dollars and handed it to Salamudin, asking her to tell the old woman that she had bought all the watermelons and could she go to his house to see it later. She also told Salamudin that she wanted to investigate how many people suffer from such big neck disease in southern Xinjiang. Her school is the best medical school in the country. She wants everyone to eat fine salt, otherwise the health will get worse and worse after generations.

When Salamudin heard that An Xia was going to do such a thing, his expression gradually became solemn. He told An Xia that he was willing to help An Xia with all his strength. He saw his compatriots suffering from big neck disease over the years. Because he had no money to see a doctor, many people were in pain and uncomfortable, and he also wanted to do something for everyone.

He pushed An Xia's money away and had a serious conversation with the old woman. The old woman looked at An Xia, and the light of water appeared in her dry eyes. She slowly stood up, took An Xia into her arms, and kept calling out Hu Da.

The old woman packed up the remaining cantaloupe and watermelons and insisted on giving these to An Xia. Finally, Xiao Jingsheng collected the watermelons. Everyone squeezed them and left in a van. Because of Xiao Ran's physical problems, Salamudin sent Xiao Jingsheng and his wife and Xiao Ran home first. An Xia happened to go to the suitcase to get two packets of square candy and two packets of brick tea. Then, he quietly transferred some candies and biscuits from the space and embarked on the way to the old lady's house with Salamudin.
Chapter completed!