The medical benefits of swearing

By Dr Douglas Street

Does swearing have medical benefits?

We call them 'bad words', 'curse words', 'indecent language', etc. They vary from culture to culture, but they are generally regarded as socially unacceptable and may be banned in certain spheres.

We Jamaicans certainly have a colourful collection. But why do we swear, and could there be any benefit to swearing?

The vast majority of us use exclamatory words. We use them when we are in pain, for emphasis, as self-expression, as sexual vocal expression, when socialising with close friends, during a verbal attack, to enhance a joke, to show surprise, and as a confidence booster.

There is a range of social acceptability of these terms, with words such as 'man', 'wow' and 'jeez' being more palatable, while others such as 'damn', 's#!t', and the f-bomb are generally seen as progressively increasing in how high they raise the eyebrows.

Using these words is seen as a basic instinct and the ones we use indicate how willing we are to go against social norms. Men generally swear more than women, which is probably reflective of the fact that men are generally more openly aggressive.

INCREASE TOLERANCE OF PAIN

Interestingly, recent research has suggested that swearing may increase our tolerance of pain. In fact, it may as much as double the time that we can tolerate a painful stimulus. This is because it seems to improve circulation, brings about the release of endorphins, and facilitates a sense of calm, control, and well-being.

There are some persons who even advocate the use of swear words to relieve pain when there is nothing else available (a ubiquitous analgesic).

However, it has been found that the more often expletives are used, the less effective they become. This is probably because the more socially unacceptable they are to us, the more potent they are as pain-relievers as the impact they have on our mind is greater.

So if we use them as a regular decoration of our conversations, then they probably would not have much effect in raising our pain threshold. Not surprisingly, therefore, swear words are more effective as pain-relievers in women.

There are probably other ways to achieve a similar effect as many persons may find this analgesic unpalatable, and I suspect that calling out to God may have a similar effect. Some research should probably be done to assess this as well.

Personally, I don't swear.

Dr Douglas Street is a general practitioner and has private practices at Trinity Medical Centre, Trinity Mall at 3 Barnett Street in Montego Bay, and Omega Medical Centre at Plaza de Negril, Negril. Send feedback to drdougstreet@yahoo.com.