Lifelong Learning: Meet Dr. Krasnov, Chiropractor to the Stars

Michael Krasnov has been a chiropractor for 36 years and is still learning new things.

He has treated many athletes, from Olympic runners to Croatian ju-jitsu artists. He has also been a chiropractor for Duke University’s basketball stars and their famed Blue Devil mascot. As a chiropractor at the World Games in 2022, he had to hit the books many evenings to learn about sports he had never seen.

“What’s netball? What’s korfball?” he recalls thinking. To earn athletes’ trust, he learned the athletic skills required and the vocabulary used in each sport.

For Dr. Krasnov of Chiropractic Partners in Durham, N.C., learning is a major reward of his profession. “I love it. It’s a challenge for me. I get to meet wonderful people,” he says. “It keeps me fresh because I always have to be thinking and learning.”

Dr. Krasnov served as the chiropractor for all teams at North Carolina State University for four years and at Duke University for 14 years. He was the team chiropractor for the U.S. Olympic Track & Field team in 1996 and treated athletes at the World Powerlifting Championships and the Pan American and World Ju-jitsu championships. As a Certified Chiropractic Extremity Practitioner, he has taught post-doctoral courses for over 25 years.

Dr. Krasnov says the outlook for further integrating chiropractic into sports medicine is bright. While team chiropractors were scarce years ago, “now, every U.S. Olympic team brings multiple chiropractors. Every NFL team has a team chiropractor. Years ago, that wasn’t happening, but the athletes demanded it.”

Dr. Krasnov took an unconventional route into chiropractic. He performed as a trumpeter at jazz clubs in New York and released one record before changing course after seeing other musicians struggling to make a living. A longtime martial artist, he moved to Port Angeles, Wash., where he ran several martial arts schools and repaired musical instruments. “I liked working with my hands, as a chiropractor does,” he says.

Dr. Krasnov entered chiropractic after two medical doctors failed to help him through a hip injury. The first told him to stop doing martial arts, and the second offered pain pills. He saw a chiropractor at a friend’s suggestion and soon felt well again. He returned to college and graduated from chiropractic school in 1988.

At Duke, he helped athletes in all sports and, now and then, a referee with a crick in their neck. He also treated Duke’s Blue Devil mascot after he fell off a surfboard during a halftime stunt.

At a recent ju-jitsu championship, “I saw more trauma in two days than I would see in a half-year in my office,” he says. Many injured athletes still wanted to compete and were grateful for his care. For one who tore his bicep, “I taped him in a way that almost reproduced his bicep muscle,” Dr. Krasnov says. The athlete went on to win medals.

Dr. Krasnov sees a bright future for the field. As chiropractic is integrated into more multidisciplinary settings with physical therapists, orthopedic surgeons, and others to provide integrated patient care, he says, even more exciting opportunities will open up.