Small needles, great effect - from disbelief to recognition

But it has not always been like that. Actually it took some years before the medical profession and the medical world would look at acupuncture as an effective treatment method.

MD Ole Dahl from Copenhagen was among the first who realized the potential of the traditional Chinese way of looking at disease and treatment.

"I traveled to Singapore in 1971 to see how Chinese doctors operated patients without anesthesia by using acupuncture," Ole Dahl said. "It surprised me to see that it was possible, but I saw that acupuncture is the only alternative form of treatment that has survived thousands of years of practice, as most others have resolved. It helped to convince me and I began to study acupuncture."

A struggle

It was quite a struggle to get the established system's eyes opened to the new treatment, but Dahl formed a medical company for acupuncture with 15 colleagues and traveled to China to become more proficient.

"I learned acupuncture from Dr Gao Lishan in Beijing in 1980 but today acupuncture is taught at Danish universities in the training of doctors and is widely recognized as a treatment option for certain types of diseases and disorders," he said.

Students practise the Chinese needles at The Acupuncture School in Copenhagen of Danmark, Nov 2, 2010. [Photo/Xinhua]