According to academics, the alternative therapy was all the rage for those embarrassing Neolithic bladder problems and tummy upsets. Needles were made from stone or bone rather than the ultra fine metals of today. Austrian experts who examined Europe's oldest tattooed mummy -- a 5,300-year-old Tyrolean nicknamed Otzi -- found puncture marks that were plain and would have been hidden by clothing - unlike the elaborate tattoos of birds and reptiles on the limbs of the fashion leaders of Stone Age body art. The methods also caused some unsightly side effects: the Stone Age patient's skin was permanently marked by the burnt herbs daubed on the wound.

In Chinese acupuncture, inserting needles at certain points tapsinto the body's underlying energy flows, which affect pain and inflammations.

According to tradition, lines, or meridians, running through the body correspond to inner organs. Otzi's tattoos are mostly grouped around the meridians for the bladder and spleen - points used when a person suffers abdominal problems.

British scientists recently discovered whipworm eggs in the poor man's much-probed innards - a parasite infestation that causes acute stomach pains. Angela Hicks, joint principal of the College of Integrated Chinese Medicine, based in Reading, west of London, said the Chinese had first written down their theories on acupuncture in 200 BC. ``Acupuncture has always been credited to the Chinese. If this research is true, the most interesting factor may be how the practice travelled from Europe to China.''