Chiropractor Munksgaard addresses pain as well as cause
DATE
23 January 2023
TEXT
Annerieke Simeone
IMAGE
Brian Mul
Chiropractor Per Munksgaard never just looks at the site of the pain, as the cause of back, neck or joint pain may lie elsewhere entirely.
Taar sits one, and there. And one more here." Per Munksgaard has just discovered three blockages in my back. The chiropractor, working today in his practice on Groot Hertoginnelaan, runs an index finger along the spinal column model on his table. "That first blockage is between C5 and C6. That's here, near the neck, those others are between your shoulder blades and near your lower back." The life of a journalist, I guess. Always at the computer. "Do you even have a separate keyboard?", Munksgaard asks.
Kneecap
He also wants to know if I am in pain, whether I am left- or right-handed, what sleeping position I am in. With a reflex hammer, he taps just below my kneecap and my lower leg jerks forward. "That's good," he says with satisfaction. "And now just lie on your back and raise your hands above your head. What do you think? You can make your left arm longer than your right."
Per Munksgaard: 'My job is to adapt the treatment to your body'
Munksgaard and his colleagues do not only receive adults in his practice. "We see babies, but also centenarians," he says. Babies? "Yes, more and more. Just a fortnight ago, a mother came with her child." After the difficult delivery, the child, who had a pinched nerve in the neck, cried almost 15 hours a day. "Debilitating of course. After only a few treatments, the crying was reduced to two hours a day. It is very rewarding work when, during treatment, you see that clenched little fist slowly open again with relaxation.
'By the way, do you know that I am also seeing more and more adolescents?'
By the way, do you know that I also see more and more adolescents? Who are on their mobiles all day. No, it is hopeless to say: put those away. I'd rather ask them: what do you think is a nice pose? Then they suddenly straighten their backs. We have to work towards that, I say."
Munksgaard
Nine out of 10 people who visit Chiropractic Munksgaard have already gone through an entire process. "GP, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, mensendieck. If the symptoms persist, they come to us. Now I ask you some questions, but patients normally fill in an extensive questionnaire first. I also ask for photographs. 'Yes, but,' we often hear, 'according to the specialist there is nothing to see on them. Everything was OK.' And then people keep running with it. I come from a family of dentists: people with toothache are too late."
The chiropractor on Groot Hertoginnelaan with a spinal column model on his table.
He stands up and walks over to a digital screen showing the front and back of the human body. "Look, if I click on that sore in your lower back, you will see that it can also radiate to the side of your fibula. For the same money, you would have come here for that. So as a chiropractor, you never just look at the spot of pain, because the cause may be somewhere else."
So first examine, then treat. "We take photographs - if you don't already have them - and preferably a scan of your back and neck that analyses bone mass and the ratio of muscle to fat mass. Then we measure your muscle strength and the differences in your spine with a temperature scan."
The number of cases with emotional causes is growing. "Divorces, deaths, but also stress"
Still many back and neck problems have a chemical cause (tobacco/alcohol/medication use) or a physical cause (wrong sitting position, an accident), but the chiropractor sees the number of cases with emotional causes in particular growing. "Divorces, deaths, but also stress. In the last two years, many people have been coming here who were housebound due to the lockdown. Private and work were intermingling more, people were working longer in the evenings."
Manual therapy
"And now?", I ask. "What do we do about these constrictions in my back?" I look at the decompression table that a friend with an incipient herniated disc benefited so much from. There, vertebrae are painlessly pushed apart a tiny bit, creating space and reducing the constriction of the nerve pathway. Munksgaard smiles. "I'm thinking about manual therapy, but I don't like to guess. First we wait for the tests. My job is to adapt the treatment to your body and not the other way around."
text Annerieke Simeone / image Brian Mul
Chiropractor Per Munksgaard never just looks at the site of the pain, as the cause of back, neck or joint pain may lie elsewhere entirely.
Taar sits one, and there. And one more here." Per Munksgaard has just discovered three blockages in my back. The chiropractor, working today in his practice on Groot Hertoginnelaan, runs an index finger along the spinal column model on his table. "That first blockage is between C5 and C6. That's here, near the neck, those others are between your shoulder blades and near your lower back." The life of a journalist, I guess. Always at the computer. "Do you even have a separate keyboard?", Munksgaard asks.
Kneecap
He also wants to know if I am in pain, whether I am left- or right-handed, what sleeping position I am in. With a reflex hammer, he taps just below my kneecap and my lower leg jerks forward. "That's good," he says with satisfaction. "And now just lie on your back and raise your hands above your head. What do you think? You can make your left arm longer than your right."
Per Munksgaard: 'My job is to adapt the treatment to your body'
Munksgaard and his colleagues do not only receive adults in his practice. "We see babies, but also centenarians," he says. Babies? "Yes, more and more. Just a fortnight ago, a mother came with her child." After the difficult delivery, the child, who had a pinched nerve in the neck, cried almost 15 hours a day. "Debilitating of course. After only a few treatments, the crying was reduced to two hours a day. It is very rewarding work when, during treatment, you see that clenched little fist slowly open again with relaxation.
'By the way, do you know that I am also seeing more and more adolescents?'
By the way, do you know that I also see more and more adolescents? Who are on their mobiles all day. No, it is hopeless to say: put those away. I'd rather ask them: what do you think is a nice pose? Then they suddenly straighten their backs. We have to work towards that, I say."
Munksgaard
Nine out of 10 people who visit Chiropractic Munksgaard have already gone through an entire process. "GP, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, mensendieck. If the symptoms persist, they come to us. Now I ask you some questions, but patients normally fill in an extensive questionnaire first. I also ask for photographs. 'Yes, but,' we often hear, 'according to the specialist there is nothing to see on them. Everything was OK.' And then people keep running with it. I come from a family of dentists: people with toothache are too late."
The chiropractor on Groot Hertoginnelaan with a spinal column model on his table.
He stands up and walks over to a digital screen showing the front and back of the human body. "Look, if I click on that sore in your lower back, you will see that it can also radiate to the side of your fibula. For the same money, you would have come here for that. So as a chiropractor, you never just look at the spot of pain, because the cause may be somewhere else."
So first examine, then treat. "We take photographs - if you don't already have them - and preferably a scan of your back and neck that analyses bone mass and the ratio of muscle to fat mass. Then we measure your muscle strength and the differences in your spine with a temperature scan."
The number of cases with emotional causes is growing. "Divorces, deaths, but also stress"
Still many back and neck problems have a chemical cause (tobacco/alcohol/medication use) or a physical cause (wrong sitting position, an accident), but the chiropractor sees the number of cases with emotional causes in particular growing. "Divorces, deaths, but also stress. In the last two years, many people have been coming here who were housebound due to the lockdown. Private and work were intermingling more, people were working longer in the evenings."
Manual therapy
"And now?", I ask. "What do we do about these constrictions in my back?" I look at the decompression table that a friend with an incipient herniated disc benefited so much from. There, vertebrae are painlessly pushed apart a tiny bit, creating space and reducing the constriction of the nerve pathway. Munksgaard smiles. "I'm thinking about manual therapy, but I don't like to guess. First we wait for the tests. My job is to adapt the treatment to your body and not the other way around."
