Narrator: Doctors often remind us that medicine is more art than science. Moreover, medicine is subject to the traditions of this or that culture. So how you're treated depends on where you live. Listen to what Svetlana Tsvetkova says. She teaches Russian to foreigners at Moscow University. And while she is a Moscow native, she spent a year in the U.S., so she can compare the medical mindset of both countries.

Svetlana: Russian love to be sick. I realized that only after I arrived in America. I used to think that being sick at home for a week at a time was normal. Now I realize that compared to the rest of the world, that's probably anomalous.

Russians don't like taking medicine, at least not as much as Americans. They really like folk remedies. For example, say you caught a cold: your nose is stuffed; you're coughing; you have a sore throat... The last thing you would want to do is to take antibiotics. Instead, drink some tea with honey and lemon. Or maybe some hot milk with baking soda, sugar, and butter. For a cough, you can take a black raddish and cut out the insides and remove the top. Then into the open black raddish you would pour honey. Then replace the top you cut off. Let it stand for a few hours. And then use a spoon to eat — or drink — the stuff inside the raddish. They say that's supposed to help with a cough.

What else...? Close all the windows. I mean, God forbid you should have any fresh air. Get in bed and stay there. Watch some TV. Call your friends. Read a good book. And don't even think about leaving the house for a week, especially to go to work.

Narrator:  Let's see what some others have to say.

Mira: My hobby, thrust upon me, I would say, is treating sick people. If you're the mother of three kids, you have no choice but to learn. So... if you have a sore throat, you have to gargle, preferrably with salt water or baking soda. Those are home remedies. Or you can get tablets that you dissolve in water, or some other liquid gargles. But all in all, it's best to make do with the most basic remedies: a glass of water, a spoonful of salt, and half a spoon of baking soda. That will wipe away the infection.

Narrator: Olga Komarnitskaya sings opera. For her, a cold means losing her voice. After all, the vocal chords are particularly prone to damage during a cold.

Olga: For a cold it's good to prepare something warm to drink: a glass of hot boiling milk. Then add some butter to the hot milk. Also, you can add an egg yolk with a bit of baking soda. You drink a glass or two of that each day. That willdo wonders for your voice. It's even good for pneumonia, especially for people who can't take antibiotics — pneumonia and bronchitis.

Narrator: Here's another difference in the practice of medicine. In America doctors are seen more as "partners" or "advisers" rather than as oracles whose word is law. But in Russia, doctors wield immense authority. Doctors are not to be argued with.

Meet Aleksandr Kovalevsky, a doctor from a family of doctors.

Dr. Kovalevsky: My name is Aleksandr. I live in Moscow. I'm a physician. I traveled throughout the Soviet Union, to the far north, to Asia, to the tundra and the taiga. I treated people. My own field is traumotology and orthpedics: fractures, trauma, burns. Right now I have a oractice. At one time I was a division head at Botkin Hospital.

Narrator: Botkin is one of the best hospitals in Moscow. It is especially famous for its tauma unit where Kovalevsky works.

Dr. Kovalevsky: I've been in every imaginable emergency setting: Spitak, Armenia...

Narrator: On December 7, 1987 the city of Spitak was leveled by an earthquake measuring seven points on the Richter scale. The disaster claimed 25,000 lives and left half a million homeless. Doctors from around the world poured into Armenia. One of them was Aleksandr Kovalevsky.

Dr. Kovalevsky's chosen profession should surprise no one. It's in his genes.

Dr. Kovalevsky: My parents are doctors. My sister's a doctor. My brother's a doctor. My younger brother was a doctor. He moved to Israel and died there. My aunt is a doctor. I've been surrounded by medicine since my childhood.

Narrator: Kovalevsky has some strong opinions on a number of issues.

Dr. Kovalevsky: Violence and murder both lead to the the same thing: people die prematurely. Agression in this country is much higher. The environment is bad... Bad water, bad air... throughout the world. We can expect worldwide environmental catastrophes. People die a third of the way through what should be their life expectancy. We should live 160 to 180 years. But we live to only 70 or 80.

Narcotics are death. Alcohol is death. Look, I don't drink. I don't use drugs. I hate drunks. If someone  drinks, that's bad. People like that shouldn't be allowed to reproduce. They should be sterilized. Drug users are enemies of society. They should either be placed under observation or quarantined, where they can live like weeds. Even weeds contribute more than those who are incapable of controlling themselves. That's bad. We live poorly, far short of our potential.

Narrator: Of course, not all would agree with Dr. Kovalevsky's perscription for life. But there can be no doubt that the issues he discusses are some of the most serious that society faces.