Even with return-to-office policy shifts, telecommuting is likely to stay. Recent data suggests that up to 30% of Americans work from home at least part of the time. That’s why it’s important to consider home office ergonomics to avoid repetitive stress injuries.

If you telecommute, consider how conducive your home workspace is to performing job tasks. Your workspace might include a desk, a chair, a computer, and a smartphone. Perhaps you have “satellite offices,” other places you work at home. 

These satellite offices might involve:

• A dining room chair
• An armchair 
• A kitchen table, coffee table, end table, or kitchen island
• Pillows and cushions
• Patio furniture
• Sofas 

If that’s the case and you work this way too often or too long, you could damage your body to the point of permanent ergonomic-related postural deformities. Telecommuting continues to metaphorically reshape the world of work while it literally reshapes workers. 

Who Is Responsible for Ergonomic Home Offices?

Whether companies must attend to staff’s home office ergonomic needs hinges on variables, including who chose the remote work arrangement in the first place. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has few, if any, regulations around this. Employers requiring, or simply encouraging, remote work should protect employee ergonomic health to the best of their abilities. Such support could include providing equipment, employee stipends, training, and other resources. 

While OSHA requires that employers provide safe, healthy work settings, its enforcement reach is limited. Unless injuries spark investigations, employers are found liable, or workers’ compensation is involved, and responsibility for home office ergonomics is largely uncharted territory.     

However, remote workers should remember that treating sofas like office chairs and kitchen tables like desks can cause microtrauma, repetitive strain/stress injuries, and more serious problems over time. Even with employer-provided, ergonomically-designed home offices at their disposal, much of remote worker health and safety is determined by employees. 

What Doesn’t Work in Home Offices?

So, what’s wrong with using coffee tables as desks, couches as office chairs, and pillows as chair cushions? 

Coffee and end tables are too low for office work. Using them as such can cause issues including poor posture, wrist injuries, lower back pain, and neck strain. Kitchen and dining room tables and kitchen islands are too tall to allow proper positioning of wrists, legs, and feet. 

Though they may seem like a logical choice, kitchen islands should not double as standing desks. Kitchen and dining room chairs rarely offer lumbar support and can also cause injuries. 

Sofas and armchairs often lure us into a false sense of security where we forget that our health is impacted. Issues related to sofas include inadequate spine support, neck and shoulder problems, and fatigue.

Surfaces not designed for office work are usually non-adjustable, making monitors too high or too low and keyboard positions sub-optimal. This can cause carpal tunnel syndrome and other musculoskeletal problems. Noticing we’re uncomfortable, we might boost ourselves with cushions or wedge a pillow behind our backs. Doing this is rarely a permanent fix and may contribute to deformities and chronic pain. 

Among the best ways to prevent injuries associated with remote work is through regular breaks, stretches, and walking. Making movement and self-care part of your daily routine works wonders, as does the acronym STEAM: Stretch, Tea, Exercise, And Meditation. 

Setting Up a Remote Workspace 

Even furniture intended for office use doesn’t guarantee proper ergonomics. Not all desk chairs, for instance, are created equal. Look for features that meet your needs, such as adjustable armrests and customizable lumbar support. General guidelines include:  

• Chairs adjusted so that elbows are at a 90-degree angle, forearms parallel with the floor, and hips level with or slightly lower than your knees
• Feet resting flat on the floor (use a footrest if needed)
• Monitors placed properly, the tops of their screens just below eye level

This article from the Mayo Clinic offers additional guidance and depicts an effective home workstation.  

Wireless keyboards expand how we work from home, allowing us to switch rooms, work from a cafe or park, and exercise.

The following are ways we can prevent headaches while “looking out” for our eyes: 

• Adjust the brightness on computer monitors  
• Ensure adequate task lighting
• Maximize natural light and other ambient light sources 
• Place workstations so that you’re not peering into outdoor glare 

We can do much to help ourselves stay safe and well while telecommuting. Remote workers should do everything they can to maintain good health, and employers should support this wherever possible. 

Please click here to read about my own home office and find out where I work when I need a change of scene.

Even with return-to-office policy shifts, telecommuting is likely to stay. Recent data suggests that up to 30% of Americans work from home at least part of the time. That’s why it’s important to consider home office ergonomics to avoid repetitive stress injuries.

If you telecommute, consider how conducive your home workspace is to performing job tasks. Your workspace might include a desk, a chair, a computer, and a smartphone. Perhaps you have “satellite offices,” other places you work at home. 

These satellite offices might involve:

• A dining room chair
• An armchair 
• A kitchen table, coffee table, end table, or kitchen island
• Pillows and cushions
• Patio furniture
• Sofas 

If that’s the case and you work this way too often or too long, you could damage your body to the point of permanent ergonomic-related postural deformities. Telecommuting continues to metaphorically reshape the world of work while it literally reshapes workers. 

Who Is Responsible for Ergonomic Home Offices?

Whether companies must attend to staff’s home office ergonomic needs hinges on variables, including who chose the remote work arrangement in the first place. 

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has few, if any, regulations around this. Employers requiring, or simply encouraging, remote work should protect employee ergonomic health to the best of their abilities. Such support could include providing equipment, employee stipends, training, and other resources. 

While OSHA requires that employers provide safe, healthy work settings, its enforcement reach is limited. Unless injuries spark investigations, employers are found liable, or workers’ compensation is involved, and responsibility for home office ergonomics is largely uncharted territory.     

However, remote workers should remember that treating sofas like office chairs and kitchen tables like desks can cause microtrauma, repetitive strain/stress injuries, and more serious problems over time. Even with employer-provided, ergonomically-designed home offices at their disposal, much of remote worker’s health and safety is determined by employees. 

What Doesn’t Work in Home Offices?

So, what’s wrong with using coffee tables as desks, couches as office chairs, and pillows as chair cushions? 

Coffee and end tables are too low for office work. Using them as such can cause issues including poor posture, wrist injuries, lower back pain, and neck strain. Kitchen and dining room tables and kitchen islands are too tall to allow proper positioning of wrists, legs, and feet. 

Though they may seem like a logical choice, kitchen islands should not double as standing desks. Kitchen and dining room chairs rarely offer lumbar support and can also cause injuries. 

Sofas and armchairs often lure us into a false sense of security where we forget that our health is impacted. Issues related to sofas include inadequate spine support, neck and shoulder problems, and fatigue.

Surfaces not designed for office work are usually non-adjustable, making monitors too high or too low and keyboard positions sub-optimal. This can cause carpal tunnel syndrome and other musculoskeletal problems. Noticing we’re uncomfortable, we might boost ourselves with cushions or wedge a pillow behind our backs. Doing this is rarely a permanent fix and may contribute to deformities and chronic pain. 

Among the best ways to prevent injuries associated with remote work is through regular breaks, stretches, and walking. Making movement and self-care part of your daily routine works wonders, as does the acronym STEAM: Stretch, Tea, Exercise, and Meditation. 

Setting Up a Remote Workspace 

Even furniture intended for office use doesn’t guarantee proper ergonomics. Not all desk chairs, for instance, are created equal. Look for features that meet your needs, such as adjustable armrests and customizable lumbar support. General guidelines include:  

• Chairs adjusted so that elbows are at a 90-degree angle, forearms parallel with the floor, and hips level with or slightly lower than your knees
• Feet resting flat on the floor (use a footrest if needed)
• Monitors placed properly, the tops of their screens just below eye level

This article from the Mayo Clinic offers additional guidance and depicts an effective home workstation.  

Wireless keyboards expand how we work from home, allowing us to switch rooms, work from a cafe or park, and exercise.

The following are ways we can prevent headaches while “looking out” for our eyes: 

• Adjust the brightness on computer monitors  
• Ensure adequate task lighting
• Maximize natural light and other ambient light sources 
• Place workstations so that you’re not peering into outdoor glare 

We can do a lot to help ourselves stay safe and well while telecommuting. Remote workers should do everything they can to maintain good health, and employers should support this wherever possible. 

Chiropractic care is an effective, drug-free and long-established approach to injury prevention, chronic pain treatment and overall optimization of musculoskeletal health. However, studies suggest that chiropractic care can positively impact nervous system function, specifically, the brain’s command center, helping to improve mood, sleep and overall health and well-being. These benefits are based on natural responses in our brain-body connection.  

Research also reveals potential links between chiropractic adjustments and improved muscle control and motor function. This may involve neuroplasticity, the brain’s ability to adapt following injury or reorganize and form new connections between neurons, which could help the nervous system adapt and heal. Neuroplasticity is often described as the brain’s gift for “rewiring” itself in response to injury, experience, or new learning.

For example, many people who lose the ability to speak following a stroke regain it over time as the brain strengthens secondary language centers to compensate for damaged areas. Similarly, if your dominant hand is in a cast, neuroplasticity helps you adapt by training your non-dominant hand to perform tasks like signing your name.

Think of your brain as a drone pilot and your body as a drone. The brain sends signals through the nervous system, like the drone’s remote controller, to direct the body’s muscles, fine-tune balance or react to the environment. 

Meanwhile, sensors in the body — the drone’s cameras and instruments — send information back to the brain about our body position, a touch we felt, some pain, or the temperature so that the brain can respond appropriately. 

If the signal between the pilot and the drone is disrupted, say there’s interference or a lag, the drone might move erratically or not respond. Similarly, if the brain-body connection is off, your movements can become uncoordinated or your muscles may not function properly. 

Testing the Brain-Body Connection

In one study, researchers examined the effects of chiropractic care on brain function by dividing patients with chronic low back pain into two groups with 38 patients each. 

Using electroencephalogram (EEG) to study brain signals, somatosensory evoked potentials (SEPs) to factor in the brain’s management of touch and sensations, Fitbit data to gauge activity levels, and sleep data, researchers were able to draw objective conclusions. By having each patient complete questionnaires to report how they felt in a more subjective way, researchers could draw more nuanced conclusions throughout the study.  

One group received actual chiropractic care while the other received simulated chiropractic treatment. EEGs and SEPs were performed before the study’s start, immediately following the first chiropractic session and again after four weeks of care. The questionnaires were completed at the beginning of the study and repeated after the fourth week. Fitbit data collection was continuous throughout. 

Following chiropractic care, EEGs showed significant increases in beta, alpha and theta brainwave frequencies and a marked drop in delta brainwave power. Delta brainwaves are slow and typically dominant during heavy sleep. Theta brainwaves are also connected to sleep, particularly deep, meditative states and drowsiness. On the other hand, Alpha brainwaves tend to be most active when we’re awake, but calm, as when we daydream or meditate. Beta brainwaves are faster and associated with analytical thinking. 

The study suggests that chiropractic care could cause our brains to pivot from comparatively sluggish and diminished brain power to become brains that are relaxed yet alert. More specifically, chiropractic may cause neuroplastic alterations of brain structure and function related to how we experience pain, manage sleep and regulate our moods.

This multinational study, involving researchers from New Zealand, Denmark and Turkey, revealed that chiropractic may benefit muscle control and motor function, including signals sent by the brain to muscles in our arms and legs. 

This suggests that chiropractic adjustments might enhance the brain’s control over muscle function.​ In addition, there is potential for spinal manipulation to improve motor function, possibly benefiting persons with movement disorders or muscle control impairment. If true, chiropractic is a possible avenue for treatment in rehabilitation settings for patients seeking to improve muscle control and coordination. 

What Physical Fitness Does for Neuroplasticity 

Exercise boosts blood flow, meaning more oxygen and nutrients reach our brains, making us more alert and mentally focused. It enhances neuroplasticity by helping the brain forge new neural connections, especially in learning and memory, and it triggers the release of chemicals such as Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor (BDNF), to help neurons survive and grow. 

Doctors of chiropractic help patients become or remain physically fit because a whole-being, drug-free approach makes that focus natural, in every sense of the word.

While it is a popular term these days, for those who are unfamiliar, here is a thought experiment to help you understand what’s meant by a cortisol detox.

Imagine that you are terrified enough to start running from a threat. Lungs heaving and heart pounding, you never dreamed you could run this fast. Your destination: a cave about a quarter mile ahead. You leap over fallen branches and scramble through thorny brush. 

When you fall, you spring to your feet again and keep running. Homing in on the cave’s entrance, you shoot through headfirst like a torpedo. The bull elephant that was hot on your trail skids to a stop outside, too large to follow you in. 

Anyone who’s outrun a bull elephant probably has the stress hormone, cortisol, to thank. It is part of the body’s hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis. When our brains sense danger, they activate the HPA, causing our adrenal glands to release cortisol. 

Cortisol reroutes energy from where it’s less needed to where it’s needed most. Cortisol also helps us through difficult psychological or emotional experiences. Too much cortisol means that a “cortisol detox” might help restore its normal levels and stop unhealthy effects.  

Cortisol boosts energy by triggering the release of blood sugar and manages inflammation to reduce pain and swelling and prevent infections. It “borrows” glucose retained in the liver to prevent low blood sugar and even suppresses our appetites in case we can’t find food for a while.  

Stress is part of life, and some stress is good for us. But when it becomes too much — money shortages, family tensions, overstimulation from smart devices, etc. —  our brains stop discerning bull elephants from stressful but safe situations, such as making a speech. 

When this happens, cortisol imbalances can become chronic, leading to longer-term physical, mental, and emotional health issues. 

The list of possible problems related to high cortisol and chronic stress include:

• Anxiety, depression, and irritability 
• Blood sugar imbalances, insulin resistance, and fatigue
• Racing thoughts, brain fog, and forgetfulness 
• Susceptibility to illnesses, slower healing time, and greater risk of infection
• Weight gain, especially abdominal

We see bullet points like these in healthcare articles all the time, but they often lack explanation. If we remember that cortisol’s job is to take energy from some systems to give to others, it’s easier to see how prolonged cortisol production would lead to problems by depleting some resources and overloading others.  

Additional problems may include high blood pressure, muscle weakness, headaches, and salt or sugar cravings. Digestion problems are also possible, and some women with high cortisol report irregular menstrual cycles. 

Doctors of chiropractic (DCs) are skilled at addressing these issues. Their mentorship-based care helps patients understand how stress, habits, and other lifestyle features impact their whole-being, but seeing a chiropractor sooner rather than later is important for achieving the best possible outcome. 

Cortisol Detox Versus Cortisol Detox Diets

It is a human tendency to embrace unhealthy habits that have long-term consequences, then latch onto fads and quick fixes such as “detox diets” and scam nutritional supplements to make everything right again. 

A cortisol detox can be a healthy choice, but cortisol detox diets and many supplements marketed as a means of cortisol control or elimination are ineffective and possibly harmful. A detox that includes a consistent sleep schedule of seven to nine hours, adequate hydration, and nutrient-, fiber-rich foods is a better option for treating high cortisol and chronic stress. Exercise is important, too, because it can help reduce cortisol, balance blood sugar, and manage stress. However, one should be careful not to overdo it on exercise as too much can increase cortisol. 

DCs help re-establish mental, physical, and lifestyle alignment, including identifying exercises that won’t raise cortisol.  

If you have questions about cortisol or chronic stress, talk to your DC. If you’re not currently benefitting from chiropractic treatment, consider scheduling a consultation with one soon. Remember, sooner is safer than later.