'%&*#$!' makes you feel better: new study finds swearing like a sailor may alleviate pain.

Although the news probably won't stop parents from washing kids' mouths out with soap, it turns out that cussing a blue streak may be a good thing. Four-letter words may help alleviate pain, suggests a study in the August 5 NeuroReport.

"Swear words are unique," says psychologist Timothy Jay of Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts in North Adams. "They're really the link between the language system and the emotional system."

Inspiration for the study came to psychologist Richard Stephens as he listened to his wife let loose with some unsavory language during the throes of labor. He and colleagues at Keele University in England wanted to see whether uttering emotion-laden choice words could change the amount of pain people feel.

Undergraduate students immersed one hand in cold water (about 5[degrees]Celsius) for as long as they could stand it, up to five minutes, while repeating either a swearword or an innocuous word. When people had a swear word for their mantra (popular choices: the s-word, f-word, two b-words and a c-word), they were able to keep a hand in the chilly water longer. What's more, after the ordeal, people who swore reported less pain.

Swearing also increased heart rate. Researchers suspect the increase might signal the beginning of a fight-or-flight response, which may allow the body to tolerate or ignore pain.

Jay says the study goes beyond whether swearing should be frowned upon in polite society: "When you try to describe swearing in moral terms--is it good or bad--it keeps you from getting at the deeper evolutionary links."