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Ever stifled a line of choice language when you dropped that hammer on your foot or caught your finger in the door? Well don't, because swearing is a very effective form of pain relief according to a new study.
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Scientists at Keele University in England have released the results of a study of 67 student volunteers who they asked, to immerse their hands in cold water then either swear or chant a neutral word, reports the Scientific American.
The results, published in the journal NeuroReport, found those that chose to swear experienced less pain and were able to endure the chilling experiment for at least forty seconds longer.
How does swearing work as a pain relief?
The team speculate that the act of spraying out a few choice words as a response to painful stimuli may be linked to to ancient brain circuitry buried deep in the right half of the brain. It is possible that swearing may trigger an evolutionary response that increases our heart rate and lessens our reaction to the pain.
Study leader, psychologist Richard Stephens of Keele University, said that ""Swearing is such a common response to pain that there has to be an underlying reason why we do it."
His prescription for alleviating pain? "I would advise people, if they hurt themselves, to swear," he said.
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