10 Amazing Life Hacks That Are Actually Backed By Science

7. Swear Through The Pain

To the delight of potty mouths everywhere, the current advice for fighting pain without drugs is to swear your head off.

Seems pretty intuitive to those who prefer to fire off a stream of expletives upon stubbing a toe, but the research on swearing's soothing effects is only beginning to come under the scrutiny of the scientific community.

They figured that, as it appears to be such a universal response to pain, there must be an underlying reason as to why we do it. Controlled studies reveal that naughty words really do have a real, tangible effect on the experience of pain, with test subjects able to hold their hands in ice water for twice as long as when they were chanting neutral words.

It is thought that saying "taboo" words activates the amygdala, initiating a "fight or flight" response and pumping you full of adrenalin. Seeing as a hearty dose of adrenalin is the thing that allows people to walk to hospital with gunshot wounds and finish marathons with broken ankles, there's no wonder it makes you feel better about bashing your shin.