A Chinese actress lost her battle with cancer earlier this month after she chose traditional medicine over chemotherapy. She was 25.
Xu Ting, also known as Kitty Xu Ting, died of lymphoma, a cancer which affects the immune system, after she opted for traditional Chinese treatments such as acupuncture, cupping and gua sha, sparking a nationwide debate over alternative therapies, The Straits Times reported.
In July, Ting took to China's twitter-like micro-blogging site Weibo to reveal that she had been diagnosed with lymphoma and announced her decision to treat her cancer using Chinese therapies because she was worried about the pain and side effects associated with chemotherapy.
"No matter how long I live, I want to enjoy every day happily," she wrote to her 300,000 followers on Weibo, according to The Independent. "I don't want chemotherapy to torture me until I have no beauty or talent left."
Later that month, the "Lost in Macau" actress shared a series of pictures of her cupping and gua sha treatment sessions on the social network, prompting fans to voice their concerns over her decision to reject modern medicine.
In August, Ting's sister revealed that the treatments had failed and the actress had decided to opt for chemotherapy. However, her condition deteriorated and she passed away on Sept. 7.
Following her death, people started debating the effectiveness of traditional Chinese treatments on social media with the hashtag #XuTing'sDeathAndChineseMedicine, as some argued that the actress would still have been alive had she chosen chemotherapy at the time of her diagnosis while others maintained that Chinese medicine cannot be deemed responsible for Ting's death.
Traditional treatments like cupping are also used by athletes including American swimmer and Olympic gold-medalist Michael Phelps, who recently used the therapy at the Olympic Games in Rio.
Watch the video below to learn more about cupping therapy: