Russian National Hobby

Are you curious?
Well - the Russian National Hobby is 'Ill Health'!

The first suspicion I had was on my first visit to Moscow. There are pharmacies on every street corner, in every supermarket and all available spaces in between. A bit like pubs in England.

If you ask a Russian how they are you will get a full, detailed and comprehensive answer!
Many drugs are uncontrolled. You can go and buy any anti-biotic for instance in the local pharmacy. There is little consideration of which anti-biotic is suitable for which type of infection. The decision is based on non-professional advice and hearsay.

'Ill Health' is a favourite topic of conversation. Olga will chat to her friends for hours on the telephone about various conditions that I might suffer from e.g. a skin rash, a stomach complaint, and the advice will come tumbling in. There is apparently no need to interview, nor examine the patient. Of course the advice you recieve will be different depending on which particular friend was consulted :-)
The amount of common knowledge on health issues is considerable.

There is little faith amongst Russians in the body's ability to heal itself. A medicine is a must and to tolerate a condition patiently, whilst the body does its work, is considered ridiculous. Why suffer when you can take drugs? There is no understanding that the drugs (uncontrolled) might be doing more permanent harm and that the body will be less well prepared when the next outbreak happens. Nature's ability to do the healing is not trusted.

I am not sure of the reasons for this obsession. It could pehaps be the inhospitable climate, the polluted atmosphere of the city, the 24 hour lifestyle or another, particular phenomenon, which I have not heard referred to in the same context: atmospheric conditions and related fluctuations in the earth's magnetic field...
Olga and her family are convinced that these natural phenomena are responsible for changes in health. I cannot speak for other Muscovites. It usually is identified by default -
"I feel a bit 'off colour' today"
"Must be the change in air pressure/magnetic field."
End of discussion.
I will concede that that these phenomena tend to be more dramatically intense in the centre of a large land mass.

The Moscow (Russian) public health system is generally good. You can see a doctor without too much trouble or waiting time. There is one major organisational system that the NHS could learn from: the local surgeries have a selection of specialists on site (ear/nose/throat/, neurologist, gynaecologist etc.) and these can be seen without long winded referrals. In fact, if you know what the problem is, you can more or less go straight to the specialist.

I feel a little unwell. Must have sat on a magnet at some point today.

Do svedanya,

Graham

Factoid:Russians do not steal sink plugs - they have the very healthy habit of always washing under running water and have no need of them.