Pain relief you can swear by

NEVER mind popping pills, researchers may have found a far more straightforward way of relieving pain ... swearing.

Yelling rude words can actually raise tolerance to pain, according to a study in which volunteers underwent increasing discomfort.

Those who swore were able to stand the pain for almost twice as long as those who remained polite.

UK researchers used volunteers from Britain but also Japan, where swearing is rarely seen as a culturally acceptable response to discomfort.

They were all asked to put their non-dominant hand in ice-cold water. One half were told to repeatedly use a swear word, either in English or Japanese, while the others used non-swear words.

The British cursers were able to keep their hands in the water for 78.8 seconds, compared with 45.7 seconds for those using the neutral word.

The Japanese swearers survived for 55.6 seconds, while the non-swearers managed only 25.4 seconds.

‘‘Individuals from both Japanese and British cultures were more tolerant of the painful stimulus when swearing. This was not expected,’’ the researchers said.

One theory is that swearing stimulates the fight-or-flight response and thus pain sensations are dulled.