From disbelief to recognition
Saturday, 20 November 2010
Acupuncture and traditional Chinese medicine has gradually gained recognition among physicians and therapists in the Western world.
In Denmark there are 10 schools where nurses, midwives and other health workers learn to use acupuncture as an adjunct in the treatment of, for example, pregnant women. At the university acupuncture has also been recognized and included as part of the curriculum in the medical faculties.
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 Ole Dahl formed a medical company for acupuncture with 15 colleagues and traveled to China to become more proficient.
"I learned acupuncture from Dr. Gao Li Shan 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.
A way to balance things
At The Acupuncture School in Copenhagen, the teaching consists of equal parts theory and practice. One of the teachers, MD. Elsebeth Laegaard, sees no contradictions in the Western and the Chinese conception of illness.
"It's about combining the two concepts and not emphasize the one over the other. In the West we have tended only to focus on the disease while the traditional Chinese medicine includes the whole man and his surroundings. You could say that we here in the west have been concerned to treat specific diseases in the body, but in China they see more of how things influences each other and work to make a balance between different factors -- both inside and outside the body," Laegaard said.
No side effects
Frida van Jaarsveldt is working at a gynecologic ward as a nurse and is a student at the school. Her employers are paying for her education.
"At the hospital where I work all of our midwifes uses acupuncture, but at the ward where I work, none of us could do that. So I talked with my leaders and they thought it as a good idea to start using acupuncture - not only in treating the pregnant women, but also to relieve cancer patients of their pain," she said.
Patients with serious diseases mostly are only treated with medicine, which often has severe side effects. Acupuncture offers an alternative instrument to help the nurses to treat their patients in the best possible way.
"One of the great benefits to acupuncture is that it has no side effects and that means we can give our patients a more gentle treatment instead of filling them with medicine," said Frida van Jaarsveldt.
Widely recongised
Acupuncture is used today in most hospitals in Denmark and included as part of the offers to patients. Midwives in maternity departments benefit greatly from the small needles when they need to help pregnant women, but acupuncture is still increasing.
"Fortunately doctors have come to realize that the scientific evidence that the medical community generally supports itself by, don't apply equally to acupuncture. The establishment has gotten aware of the possibilities of the traditional Chinese medicine, and I am convinced that we have only seen the beginning here in Denmark, when it comes to use methods other than those which we have used so far," says Ole Dahl. - Xinhua
In Denmark there are 10 schools where nurses, midwives and other health workers learn to use acupuncture as an adjunct in the treatment of, for example, pregnant women. At the university acupuncture has also been recognized and included as part of the curriculum in the medical faculties.
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 Ole Dahl formed a medical company for acupuncture with 15 colleagues and traveled to China to become more proficient.
"I learned acupuncture from Dr. Gao Li Shan 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.
A way to balance things
At The Acupuncture School in Copenhagen, the teaching consists of equal parts theory and practice. One of the teachers, MD. Elsebeth Laegaard, sees no contradictions in the Western and the Chinese conception of illness.
"It's about combining the two concepts and not emphasize the one over the other. In the West we have tended only to focus on the disease while the traditional Chinese medicine includes the whole man and his surroundings. You could say that we here in the west have been concerned to treat specific diseases in the body, but in China they see more of how things influences each other and work to make a balance between different factors -- both inside and outside the body," Laegaard said.
No side effects
Frida van Jaarsveldt is working at a gynecologic ward as a nurse and is a student at the school. Her employers are paying for her education.
"At the hospital where I work all of our midwifes uses acupuncture, but at the ward where I work, none of us could do that. So I talked with my leaders and they thought it as a good idea to start using acupuncture - not only in treating the pregnant women, but also to relieve cancer patients of their pain," she said.
Patients with serious diseases mostly are only treated with medicine, which often has severe side effects. Acupuncture offers an alternative instrument to help the nurses to treat their patients in the best possible way.
"One of the great benefits to acupuncture is that it has no side effects and that means we can give our patients a more gentle treatment instead of filling them with medicine," said Frida van Jaarsveldt.
Widely recongised
Acupuncture is used today in most hospitals in Denmark and included as part of the offers to patients. Midwives in maternity departments benefit greatly from the small needles when they need to help pregnant women, but acupuncture is still increasing.
"Fortunately doctors have come to realize that the scientific evidence that the medical community generally supports itself by, don't apply equally to acupuncture. The establishment has gotten aware of the possibilities of the traditional Chinese medicine, and I am convinced that we have only seen the beginning here in Denmark, when it comes to use methods other than those which we have used so far," says Ole Dahl. - Xinhua