What is dwarfism?

The scientific name of dwarf disease is Kaschin-Beck disease. It is a systemic disease characterized by chronic osteoarthropathy, which mainly erodes the developing bones and joint systems of children and adolescents, causing joint pain, thickening, dyskinesia, muscle atrophy, affecting and hindering the development of tubular long bones, leading to joint deformity, and walking in a typical "duck step". The disease mainly harms school-age children aged 8- 15, and also occurs in other age groups. There is also a folk saying that "Kaschin-Beck disease bullies foreign households", and immigrants are more likely to get this disease than local residents.

Kaschin-Beck disease is widely distributed in northern China, which is called "Six Kidnapps Disease" in the northwest and "Dwarf Disease" in the northeast. It also occurs in some southern provinces of China, such as Sichuan and Taiwan Province. This disease also occurs in foreign countries, such as northern Korea and some areas bordering the northern border of the former Soviet Union and China, as well as Japan, Sweden, Viet Nam and other countries.

After more than a century of debate, the cause of Kaschin-Beck disease has tended to be related to "water and soil". There is water, food, and the unity of water and food. According to the water theory, the patient was caused by drinking water from the ward. This view can be divided into inorganic theory and organic theory. Inorganic theory holds that the endemic areas are mostly in the hydrogeochemical environment of element leaching and migration, and the poverty or imbalance of some elements is the main cause of the disease. According to the organic theory, the endemic areas are mostly distributed in humus layer, silt and peat, and a large number of organic acids formed by decomposition of plant residues enter the water body, which is the main cause of the disease. According to the theory of five grains, the pathogenic factors are spread by the local main grains rather than drinking water, and are caused by some chemicals in the grains. More people think that water and food are unified. From the viewpoint that Kaschin-Beck disease is a "water-soil" disease and a "disease from the mouth", they think that Kaschin-Beck disease is caused by drinking water and eating food produced in the ward. The lack or excess of some chemicals in water and grains is the root cause of diseases. It is believed that the lack of calcium and strontium is one of the reasons, and whether there are other "invisible killers" is still unknown.