Monday, July 13, 2009

Swearing Makes the Pain Tolerable...

At least according to a study to be published in the journal NeuroReport on August 5th. The study by Richard Stephens, John Atkins, and Andrew Steele had volunteers put their hand in a tub of icewater for as long as they could stand. One group was allowed to swear during this process and the other group was not. The group that was swearing kept their hands in the icewater longer showing an increased tolerance of pain.

So go ahead and don't hold back...read those lips of the injured athlete and know that they are just doing what they can to deal with the pain.

6 comments:

kkdither said...

Maybe when you swear, your blood pressure increases, actually allowing for less pain from the cold? I wonder if it works for mental anguish tolerance? I hate to suggest we swear more to better tolerate some of the crap happening in our city....

Anonymous said...

I may sound like a complete sailor, but I do feel alot better after a few choice colorful 4 letter words and it does help with pain big time, not only with cold.

SER said...

I know if I bitch at myself I can deal with pain better.

Anonymous said...

If that's the case, my language post incident should carry a warning label like: " Available by prescription only. May make you drowsy. Do not consume alcoholic beverages while cussing. Do not operate heavy machinery."

OrbsCorbs said...

I swear profusely when I work on the truck or any vehicle or machine.

One time I had to take out the heater blower motor because it was bad. It was very difficult to remove because of its location. After I pulled it out, I compared it to the new one. Good, they were exactly the same. Putting the motor in was just as hard as taking it out. After a lot of work (mostly small, squashed hands stuff that you can barely see even if you have good eyes), it was finally in. Then I fired it up and realized that I had re-installed the old motor. You shoulda heard the swearing after that one!

Bar L. said...

I am glad someone proved this scientifically, I have known it for years :)