Holy S---! Cursing Linked with Increased Tolerance to Pain

Mar. 15, 2025

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Letting out a curse word when you get injured may actually help you feel better — at least according to researchers.

U.K. researchers Olly Robertson and Richard Stephens have done several studies over the past few years in order to figure out whether there is a correlation between swearing and pain — and have been successful in linking the two, according toTheWashington Post.

In one of their earlystudiesfrom 2009, they were also able to link swearing with hypoalgesia, which according to theNational Institutes of Health(NIH) is a reduction in pain that occurs during or following exercise.

They also noted that people who used “conventional” swear words after an injury had “a 32% increase in pain threshold and a 33% increase in pain tolerance” compared to those who didn’t. In following studies, they found that conventional swear words had an effect on pain tolerance compared to more “emotional and humorous” words like “fouch” and “twizpipe.”

Stephens noted, perTheWashington Post,that this was likely because swearing in pain evoked a bodily response similar to the “fight or flight” stress response in which a person’s heart rate goes up and a surge of adrenaline is released into a person’s muscles to prepare them physically.

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Samford University professor and physical therapistNick Washmuthtold the outlet that this can be used in real-world practices, for instance, if a person stubs their toe. He suggested people use a swear word that they thought “feels powerful.”

“Swear at a steady pace once a second to once every three seconds, at a normal speech volume,” he further advised.

“We need to better understand those factors and how they play a role to be able to prescribe swearing in a medical sense, in a clinical sense,” Washmuth toldTheWashington Post. “Is there an optimal dosage for swearing?”

source: people.com