The death of a cancer-stricken actress has sparked a debate in China over whether or not traditional Chinese medicine is a sham.
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However, said Sina website, the procedures did not seem to work and her younger sister eventually convinced her to switch her course of treatment and said: “She was cheated by so many cheats that she’s turned to chemotherapy only now”.
A 26-YEAR-OLD actress tragically died of cancer after choosing Chinese holistic medicine over chemotherapy.
According to her post on the Chinese social media site Weibo, Xu was diagnosed with lymphoma, an aggressive form of cancer of the lymphatic system, in July this year and she made a decision to opt for traditional Chinese therapy instead of chemotherapy because she feared it would be too painful and may even speed up her death.
“So regardless of how long I can live for, I want to enjoy every day and live it to the fullest”.
Xu also turned to gua sha, a treatment that involves scraping the skin with a tool, and which is practised by the actor Gwyneth Paltrow and the swimmer Michael Phelps.
“May Buddha bless all the pain away from me, it’s really too too painful”, she wrote in her final post.
Xu finally began chemotherapy around mid-August, but her immune system had already become too weak and it was too late.
During the treatment: Xu Ting said on her social media account that she went for cupping, needle insertion and even blood-letting.
Since her death, the hashtag #XuTing’sDeathAndChineseMedicine has been trending on Sina Weibo – causing fierce debate on whether traditional medicines were to blame for her death.
Others argued that Xu should have taken both types of treatment, claiming that chemotherapy would have targeted her tumour while traditional Chinese medicine could have helped alleviate her symptoms.
Actress Xu Ting openly documented her cancer treatment on social media.
Her posts gained the attention of tens of thousands of social media users, many of whom urged her to opt for chemotherapy instead.
One Beijing Evening News writer said: “There are many cancer patients who pass away after receiving chemotherapy”.
One user wrote, “Listen to me, Chinese medicine is absolutely useless to cure cancer, if you don’t want to listen to me at least listen to a doctor”.
“Even after undergoing chemotherapy, a lot of patients still die, will these people say western medicine is also a sham?” he argued.
Doctor Feng Li from Chinese Academy of Medical Science said a combination of Chinese and western medicine is a better way in helping treat cancer.
“I’m sad that this is how I came to know you”, one user wrote.
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Doctor Feng told a reporter from People’s Daily Online: ‘Neither Chinese medicine or Western medicine could cure cancer once for all. “When it hurts, I’ll joke with the nurses so that I can bear the pain”.
