I'm afraid I'm not the person you meant to address. All of the points you're responding to were brought up by someone else. I merely added a couple of superstitions, and edited a bit the section about Russian traditional medicine. I researched a bit & found out the actual English name for the banki procedure you described (fire cupping), and more about mustard plasters (which are not part of traditional Chinese medicine, but were and are used in Europe & North America). Anyway, those changes were by me; that's it, though.
My 3rd grade biology textbook (in Russia) had a thermal image of a girl sitting on cold surface. I wish I still had the book & could scan the image. I think it would be perfect for the article, since it really illustrates your point that these beliefs are shared by the Russian educational/scientific/medical community as well as the rest of the population.