Back Pain Expletives

Photo: Gary M. Prior/Getty Images

If you think you should keep your expletives to your self when you get a crick in your neck or your injure your back, think again.

A small study out of Keele University in England found that participants who repeated swear words while holding their hands under icy cold water were able to hold them longer than their virtuous counterparts. While exposure to very cold water is fairly removed from back pain, the study does shed some light on how the nervous system processes unpleasant sensations such as pain.

Stating in press materials that swearing "taps into the emotional brain center", the researchers suggested that the activity triggers our natural fight or flight mechanism, which may help us tolerate the pain. My personal belief is that it helps take the mind off the pain. (Maybe the two are related.) Regardless, the study will be published in the Aug 5 issue of NeuroReport.

| Emotions and Chronic Pain | Back Pain | Nerve Pain |

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