Swearing can act as a form of pain relief, a study by Keele University in Britain confirms.
But those who have become habituated to cursing (think Gordon Ramsay) are less likely to feel the benefits.
Richard Stephens, of Keele's School of Psychology, said there was no "recommended daily swearing allowance", and it remains unclear whether certain swearwords are more effective analgesics than others.
His findings, in America's The Journal of Pain, were that those who swear just a few times a day doubled the time they could withstand the "ice-water challenge" - how long they could hold their hands in a container full of ice-water.
Those who admitted to the highest level of everyday cursing - up to a chain-swearing maximum of 60 expletives a day - did not show any benefit when undertaking a similar challenge.