By William Hageman / CHICAGO TRIBUNE
Pain and profanity.
The two have always gone together. If you doub it, just stub a toe.
And although most of us try to control our language when we're in pain, a new study would seem to suggest a better course of action: Cursing. It really makes you feel better.
A study reported in NeuroReport, a neuroscience research journal, showed that cursing during a painful experience enabled people to endure the pain longer.
When 67 adults put their hands in 32-degree water and repeated profanity, they were able to keep their hands in the water for 115 seconds without cursing, 155 seconds while cursing.
Not only did the pain tolerance of swearing students increase, but so too did their heart rates. Their perceived pain also decreased.
According to the researcher, Dr. Richard Stevens:"Swearing is emotional language. We think that people had an emotional reaction to swearing (indicated by the increase in the heart rate), bringing about the fight or flight response, which is known to increase pain tolerance (making people more able to withstand pain)."
Stevens said the most popular words were those two four-letter standbys for sex and excretion; fuck! and shit!
And the research isn't over. Stevens said that his group is looking at swearing as protection from stress, links between swearing and emotion, and whether overuse of swearing decreases the pain-relieving effect.
This article appeared in the San Antonio Express-News
on the August 26, 2009 edition.
