Sentelek scenery

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GRIFFITHS:  Travel far into Russia’s deep south – almost to the end of the road – and you’ll find the village of Sentelek.

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People cross bridge/streams/farms

GRIFFITHS:  It’s the very picture of rural bliss: fresh water, rolling hills and contented farm animals.

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Exterior of spa

GRIFFITHS:  There’s even a health spa here -- of a certain Siberian style. No scented candles or fluffy white towels,

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Pool at spa

but there is a pool, satellite TV and a doctor.

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Griffiths greets Galina

GRIFFITHS: Dr Galina. Hello.

GRIFFITHS:  Dr Galina Anisimova has gained some renown for the spa’s unusual treatment.

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Galina:  It will help him to prolong his life, to improve his quality of life and to enrich his life with energy.

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Village houses

GRIFFITHS:  And all in one small Siberian shack. It sounds intriguing.

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Dr Galina consultation with Nikolai

GRIFFITHS:  Dr Galina’s first patient of the day is fifty year old Nikolai Inozemstev. A thirty-year career driving buses across Siberia has given him a bad back and arthritis.

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Nikolai:  My joints move with difficulty and I feel pain in my joints. I can’t make a wide step or straddle my legs.

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Dr Galina runs bath

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GRIFFITHS:  Dr Galina prescribes a bath.  And this is where things get a little different.

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GRIFFITHS:  The water is a dirty, dark brown and there’s a pungent aroma.

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The secret ingredient is not pleasant; to me, it’s a little absurd and,  disgusting.

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Deer antlers

Dr Galina has boiled up frozen – but still bloody – deer antlers.

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Nikolai in bath

GRIFFITHS:  Nikolai is bathing in a deer broth of antler, blood and bone – or as a health spa might put it – essence of deer. He must really want to get better.

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Galina puts antlers in vat

Dr Galina is very serious about the deer antler therapy and believes it will fix an array of diseases – from arthritis to eczema.

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Galina with Nikolai in bath in b/g

Galina:  The antlers just have certain qualities that help people live longer and better. After the first bath and then after a treatment of ten baths, Nikolai will feel a flash of new energy.

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Nikolai in bath

Nikolai:  I don’t think I’ll be able to get rid of my diseases completely, but I should feel better. It will be easier for me to live, easier to walk, to work for a longer time. That’s all I want.

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Sentelek mountains scenery

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03:41

Deer

GRIFFITHS:  The source of this curious remedy roams across the Altai mountains. The antlers of the maral deer are an old folk cure in Russia: it’s said they were given to wounded Red Army soldiers in World War Two and to the cosmonauts in the Soviet space program. In modern Russia, the antler antidote has become big business: each stag is worth several thousand dollars.

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Griffith with Borisov

GRIFFITHS:  It’s no surprise then that the manager of the Sentelek deer farm, Nikolai Borisov, is keen to promote their curative properties.

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Borisov

Borisov:  It has a generally strengthening effect on the human body, on the nervous system, the physiological qualities.  I’m full of energy. Energy is the most important factor – energy.

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Deer being corralled in to pen

GRIFFITHS:  Every Siberian summer, the animals are corralled to harvest their precious crowns.

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Proponents of the medical miracle believe the antlers have special healing properties because they grow so fast: up to two centimetres a day.

And it’s when the antlers are still growing that the cure works best.

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Men saw antlers from deer

So, antlers that would harden and drop off naturally in winter, are cut off early in a painful procedure.

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Borisov

Borisov:  This is a wild animal anyway and even when the facilities used to cut the antlers are turned on it’s unpleasant for the animal from a psychological point of view. In general this is not a very pleasant procedure, but nevertheless they come through that okay.

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Antlers hanging in barn

GRIFFITHS:  Hung and dried in the farm’s storage barn, they look just like tree branches – but this forest is worth more than half a million dollars on the lucrative Asian markets, for Russians are relative newcomers to what’s been a centuries-old belief in traditional Chinese medicine. 

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Galina with blood potion

GRIFFITHS:  Dr Galina serves up her next treatment – unique to Russia: a potent elixir of blood from a freshly cut antler. The prescription is one medicinal glass of antler blood before breakfast every day for a month.

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Nikolai:   I reckon we should all have a drink to be healthy.

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Nikolai drinks blood

GRIFFITHS:  And because this is Russia – the blood has been laced with vodka.

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Nikolai:  It’s sweet like chocolate liqueur. This is a drink of nature that gives force to men and women. Try it.

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Pouring blood elixir

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GRIFFITHS:  So far there’s been no firm indication of the benefits or otherwise from western scientific research.

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Scenery

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GRIFFITHS:  But in Siberia – when the local hospital is hundreds of kilometres away and the treatment there may be questionable, anyway – it’s easy to see why age old remedies have a certain appeal.

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Credits: 

Reporter: Emma Griffiths

Producer: Olga Pavlova

Camera: Simon Johnson

Editor: Garth Thomas

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