Manuel Rodriguez-Vereau (above) performs an acupuncture treatment under the instruction of Chinese doctor Zhou Yunxian in a clinic at Guang'anmen Hospital in Beijing on February 18

Manuel Rodriguez-Vereau, 59, a Peruvian with one-quarter Chinese ancestry, arrives at the Guang'anmen Hospital in Beijing on an early spring morning to study acupuncture therapy.

It is the second time Rodriguez-Vereau has received a short-term training in acupuncture and moxibustion therapy in China. Despite his upbringing in Peru, Rodriguez-Vereau has never forgotten his Chinese heritage. He learned the basics of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) from his father at a young age and has continued medical training into adulthood.

"In my hometown in Peru, acupuncture is an effective and affordable therapy for treating some pains and illnesses," Rodriguez-Vereau told ChinAfrica.

Several years ago, Rodriguez-Vereau moved to Denmark and opened a rehabilitation clinic. "I found that TCM is very popular in many European countries. Especially in Denmark, acupuncture has been increasingly recognized as a legitimate medical treatment. It was an opportunity for me to continue my career there," Rodriguez-Vereau said.

Since the mid-1990s, acupuncture has grown in popularity in Denmark and other European countries. Currently, thousands of doctors and nurses in Denmark have received professional training in this ancient Chinese medical therapy, which has been used widely for rehabilitation and pain relief in the country, said Yang Jinsheng, head of Guang'anmen Hospital. Yang is also director of the International Cooperation Department under the State Administration of TCM of China.

According to a report from the World Federation of Acupuncture-Moxibustion Societies in 2013, acupuncture has become a clinical application in 183 countries around the globe.

"Chinese people believe that acupuncture can heal over 100 illnesses, and it is widely used as an adjuvant therapy for over 300 conditions," said Yang. "Based on strict medical trails, the physicians practicing acupuncture reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) that they've found evidences that acupuncture had success in treating 43 conditions in 1996."

"Apart from the WHO, hundreds of scientific trials have been undertaken to prove the efficacy of acupuncture at medical research institutes abroad," Yang said.

Multiple physiologic models have been proposed to explain the effects of acupuncture. Various models have implicated cytokines, hormones (for instance, cortisol and oxytocin), biomechanical effects, electromagnetic effects, the immune system, and the autonomic and somatic nervous systems, said Yang.

"Although scientists fail to make a comprehensible scientific explanation of acupuncture treatment, its safety and efficacy has been well proven and widely acknowledged by medical circles," Yang said.