Cursing: It's Good for Your Health

You know when you stub your toe and your knee-jerk reaction is to let out a quick swear? We certainly do. It’s a natural reaction, and the release feels pretty good.

And it should: A number of studies have shown that people who curse freely have a higher pain tolerance and lower levels of perceived pain.

So we recently tried it under different circumstances--at the gym. And it worked.

Picture this: You’re 43 minutes into a 45-minute boot camp, and the instructor is hovering over your shoulder as you struggle to get in a few more squats. Your legs are burning and you don’t think you can do it. But then...f*@c! You let out a brief cry of pain and annoyance and general over-it-ness and miraculously…you keep going.

Somehow those four letters make you power through the end of the set like magic. 

So go ahead and let it out when necessary, but know that the pain-relieving effects of cursing decrease in people whose vocabularies are mostly made up of profanities. So save those f-bombs for when you really need them--and your grandma isn’t around, of course.