Ouch! Many of us swear when we get hurt, and a new study shows it actually does help.
Turns out that swearing can significantly increase your pain tolerance – but only if you use real swear words, and not G-rated versions that mimic them, British researchers report.
For the study, 92 volunteers held their hands in an ice bath. To assess their pain threshold, researchers timed how long it took them to begin to feel pain, and their pain tolerance was determined by how long they were able to keep their hands in the freezing water.
Each participant did the experiment four times. In random order, they were instructed to repeat either actual expletives or the fake swear words “twizpipe” and “fouch”.
Benefits linked to childhood
Using actual swear words increased their pain tolerance by 33%, while the fake swear words did little to help people cope. The findings were recently published in the journal Frontiers in Psychology.
“This is the first study to assess whether novel ‘swear’ words have any pain-relieving effects. They didn’t, even though they were rated as being funny and emotion-arousing,” said lead author Richard Stephens, a senior lecturer in psychology at Keele University in the United Kingdom.
“This new finding confirms that it’s not the surface properties of swear words, such as how they sound, that underlie the beneficial effects of swearing, but something much deeper, probably linked back to childhood as we learn swear words growing up,” he said in a university news release.
An exciting opportunity has come available at Persuade Marketing, We are looking for a motivated and ambitious team leader to join our company
The position is available immediately. Please do not apply if you need to put in notice Please do not apply if the position is a conflict of interest for you as the position is engaging with individuals that go to clinics
Duties & Responsibilities
Reviewing applications for posted positions for experience and fit
Handling initial and follow-up contacts with candidates, update candidate profiles in our applicant tracking system
Pre-screen applicants over the phone and schedule interviews with appropriate team members as needed
Be on-site for first interviews, interview events,
Follow-up with candidates through all stages of the interview process
Schedule new hire onboarding with all departments as applicable for selected candidates
Setup daily, weekly training sessions use digital media and offline tools
Training all new hires through training and onboarding
Assisting operations team with quality assurance admin duties
Desired Experience & Qualification
Matric
FLUENT IN AFRIKAANS AND ENGLISH
2 years in recruiting or training
Knowledge of outbound and cold calling
Package & Remuneration
R3500 monthly CTC (3-4 hours of work daily ideally for a student or graduate looking for a internship in HR)
Performance incentives and more
Again the position is available immediately do not apply if you need to tend notice or resigation The position needs to be filled ASAP.
Posted on 30 Jun 17:07
Apply by email Miche
Or apply with your Biz CV
Create your CV once, and thereafter you can apply to this ad and future job ads easily.
An exciting opportunity has come available at Persuade Marketing, We are looking for a motivated and ambitious team leader to join our company
The position is available immediately. Please do not apply if you need to put in notice Please do not apply if the position is a conflict of interest for you as the position is engaging with individuals that go to clinics
Duties & Responsibilities
Engaging with warm leads through outbound cold calling to secure a meeting at a clinic
Following all required training and building relationsahips through outbound calling
Follow scripts and capture all leads into CRM daily
Communicating effectively and professionally
Maintaining a strong knowledge of company processes
Desired Experience & Qualification
Matric
FLUENT IN AFRIKAANS AND ENGLISH
2 years call center experience
Knowledge of outbound and cold calling
Package & Remuneration
R6000 monthly CTC
Performance incentives and more
Again the position is available immediately do not apply if you need to tend notice or resigation The position needs to be filled ASAP.
Posted on 30 Jun 16:31
Apply by email Miche
Or apply with your Biz CV
Create your CV once, and thereafter you can apply to this ad and future job ads easily.
Softsure is looking for a quality assurance technician to join their growing development team. The successful candidate will be joining a young, dynamic team responsible for building new and exciting tech solutions in the insurance space.
Roles and responsibilities:
Assisting the team in designing and implementing a testing framework.
Testing multiple applications on a host of platforms and devices to ensure the quality and identify bugs to be fixed.
Auditing of existing systems.
Improving release quality and facilitating our SDLC through testing and quality assurance
Skills/experience that you should have:
Matric or equivalent.
Basic knowledge of Unit and Feature testing libraries
Basic understanding programming frameworks.
Knowledge of the Atlassian tools (Jira, Confluence, etc).
Thoroughness and desire for self-development.
Problem-solving ability.
A good team-player and an excellent communicator (written and verbal).
Other advantageous skills/experience:
Any software testing certification or relevant degree.
It is important to note that this position is based in George, Western Cape.
Interviews with be conducted via Teams.
Posted on 30 Jun 14:33
Badger Holdings
Badger Holdings is a focused investment holding company specialising in the short-term motor insurance industry.
Pretoria, 30 June 2020 – The South African Revenue Service (SARS) today releases trade statistics for May 2020 recording a trade surplus of R15.94 billion. These statistics include trade data with Botswana, Eswatini, Lesotho and Namibia (BELN). The year-to-date (01 January to 31 May 2020) trade surplus of R12.97 billion is an improvement from the R7.22 billion deficit for the comparable period in 2019. Exports decreased by 8.8% year-on-year whilst imports deteriorated by 21.9% over the same period.
More and more US states are allowing marijuana to be taken as medicine, and a new study suggests that users do indeed feel better.
In a survey of nearly 1 300 people with chronic health conditions, researchers found that those using “medicinal cannabis” reported less pain, better sleep and reduced anxiety.
They also tended to use fewer prescription medications and were less likely to have been to the hospital recently.
A majority of US states have made marijuana legal for medical or recreational use, and studies have looked at whether those laws are linked to increased marijuana use, car accidents or emergency room visits.
Popularity explosion
But little research has examined the impact of legalisation on the people who use medicinal cannabis, said senior study author Ryan Vandrey, an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioural sciences at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore.
The finding that cannabis users felt better than non-users is not necessarily surprising, according to Vandrey. But it’s important to demonstrate it in a study, he said.
The results do not prove, however, that medicinal cannabis is effective. It’s also unclear whether certain products were linked to particular benefits.
Medicinal cannabis included not only formulations of THC – the chemical behind marijuana’s “high” – but also cannabidiol, or CBD, which does not create a high. Fifty-eight percent of users were taking “CBD-dominant” oils, tinctures and other products.
CBD has exploded in popularity across the United States in recent years, and is marketed in everything from oils and capsules to cookies and coffee. The purported benefits are also wide-ranging, and include relief from chronic pain, anxiety and insomnia.
But nearly all of those claims are untested, said Richard Miller, a professor of pharmacology at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago.
Taken for thousands of years
CBD has been shown to improve certain rare seizure disorders, he noted. In 2018, the US Food and Drug Administration approved Epidiolex – a purified, pharmaceutical-grade CBD – for those conditions.
“But all of the other 10 000 things CBD is supposed to do? We have no idea,” Miller said. “I think the vast majority of it is b.s.”
That said, cannabis clearly does have some medicinal use, according to Miller.
“With respect to humanity’s experience with cannabis,” he said, “people have taken it medicinally for thousands of years.” It was only in the last century that marijuana prohibition took hold – making those years “the anomaly”, Miller said.
The new findings, published recently in the journal Cannabis and Cannabinoid Research, are based on responses from 808 cannabis users and 468 “controls”. All had chronic health conditions – most often neurological disorders such as multiple sclerosis or epilepsy; chronic pain; or psychiatric conditions such as depression or anxiety.
All were seeking information from a non-profit on medical marijuana use; people in the control group were not using cannabis but were considering it.
Fewer prescription medications
Overall, the study found, cannabis users scored a little lower on standard scales rating pain severity and anxiety and depression. They also reported better sleep quality.
More striking, Vandrey said, was the fact that cannabis users needed less health care: They were 46% less likely to have been hospitalised in the prior month, and 39% less likely to have visited an ER. And in their day-to-day lives, they tended to use fewer prescription medications – an average of 14% fewer.
Jane Allen, an analyst with the research institute RTI International in North Carolina, called the study’s recruitment strategy a limitation. Since participants consulted the non-profit, they likely had “positive perceptions” about cannabis from the start, she said.
“The study would be stronger and less susceptible to bias if recruitment had been through a cannabis-neutral channel,” Allen said.
To Vandrey, the findings highlight the need for researchers to dig deeper into medicinal cannabis. Studies need to look, for example, at individual health conditions and the effects of a given CBD or THC product, he said.
“If we’re going to legalise cannabis to be used as medicine,” Vandrey said, “then we need to better understand how to use it as medicine.”
Miller agreed. He said the new findings “add to the flow of data” that medicinal cannabis has benefits – but the specifics remain unclear.
‘Talk to your doctor’
The study also found that only 27% of cannabis users said they were doing so under a doctor’s recommendation.
That’s concerning, according to Vandrey. “So who is recommending it to them?” he said. “And are their doctors aware they’re using it?”
For one, he noted, there’s increasing evidence that cannabinoids can interact with certain medications.
Vandrey suggested that if people are interested in using cannabis for medical reasons, they talk to their doctor. And do the research: “See if there’s evidence of safety and efficacy for your health condition,” he said.
Dirt piles up at an isolation room at Settlers Hospital in Makhanda. (Picture supplied to News24)
Two patients have told of conditions in the isolation room at Settlers Hospital in Makhanda.
Used bedpans, overflowing rubbish bins and not being fed for hours are some of the claims.
Department says the hospital has seen five confirmed cases, five cases under investigation and four deaths.
Going without food for hours, re-using bedpans filled with faeces, an overflowing bin and being ignored by nursing staff are just some of the conditions patients in isolation at Settlers Hospital in Makhanda say they have had to endure.
News24 has spoken to a patient, as well as the family member of a second patient, after they were placed in isolation showing signs of Covid-19.
The isolation room is for “patients under investigation” for Covid-19, pending their confirmed test results.
One patient, who spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of being victimised, said it would be better to just go home.
Suffering from asthma, the patient was admitted to hospital on Wednesday after having trouble breathing.
On Thursday, the patient was tested for Covid-19 and taken to an isolation room where four other patients were also waiting for their results.
“The isolation room has been a nightmare. No one wants to come inside to help us. We have to use bedpans to relieve ourselves and those pans are never cleaned. The bin has not been taken since I arrived,” the patient said.
The patient also described how they had to wait for hours for food. On Friday, they had only been served breakfast at 15:00 when they knocked furiously on the door demanding food.
As of Friday, Settlers had recorded five confirmed cases, five more patients under investigation and four deaths, provincial health department spokesperson Sizwe Kupelo said.
Kupelo did not answer further questions on the conditions at Settlers Hospital when asked by News24.
Founder and chairperson of the Unemployed People’s Movement, Ayanda Kota, said this was a common experience for patients at the hospital.
“We don’t have beds for Covid-19 anymore. The deaths are increasing in Makhanda. We buried four people this weekend,” Kota said.
Dirt piles up at an isolation room at Settlers Hospital in Makhanda. (Picture supplied to News24)
Patients claim they have had to re-use filthy bedpans at an isolation room at Settlers Hospital in Makhanda. (Picture supplied to News24)
Patients claim they have had to re-use filthy bedpans at an isolation room at Settlers Hospital in Makhanda. (Picture supplied to News24)
As of Sunday, 387 people have died of Covid-19 in the Eastern Cape.
A family member of another patient who was also admitted in the same ward, sought Kota’s help after learning of the conditions in the isolation room.
In a voice note supplied by Kota, the family member could be heard describing similar conditions as detailed by the anonymous patient. Speaking to News24, the family member said their sibling has now tested positive for Covid-19 and was taken to a quarantine site nearby.
“She has diabetes and she could not survive in those conditions. The treatment she received was horrible. I went there to give her food but they did not allow me. They said it was the law. When she was there, she was not fed for hours. The nurses don’t want to go into that room. She was waiting for the results, but already they were treating her like she had the virus. Even if she had the virus, this is not the kind of treatment anyone deserves,” she said.
In May, the SABC reported that nurses at Komga Hospital had allegedly refused to treat a positive patient from King William’s Town sent to their hospital, claiming they were scared.
The department condemned this, saying that it is constitutionally a fundamental right that every South African should have access to healthcare services regardless of their residential area.
Lack of education
Democratic Nursing Organisation of South Africa (Denosa) provincial secretary Khaya Sodidi said it was common for nurses to fear going into isolation wards because of an alleged lack of personal protective gear.
Speaking to News24, Sodidi said another challenge nurses were facing was the lack of education around Covid-19, saying some nurses did not know what to do.
“Everytime there is a new viral strain there must be a workshop. That has not happened [yet].”
They are busy raising this issue with the provincial government.
He added that as of Monday the union had recorded 800 infections of their members.
“We suspect that even that number is not accurate. We suspect that there are more.”
Stay healthy and entertained during the national lockdown. Sign up forour Lockdown Living newsletter.Sign up and manage your newsletters in thenew News24 appby clicking on theProfiletab
The Covid-19 death toll has hit 2 529, while the number of cases now sits at 144 264.
The total number of recoveries is now 70 614 – a recovery rate of 48.9%.
Here’s what made the headlines today
President Cyril Ramaphosa has expressed concern over people with Covid-19 being stigmatised within their communities. Ramaphosa, in his weekly newsletter, wrote that the stigma was likely fuelled by people’s fear of contracting the virus. He called on the public to be “guided by facts and not rumours”.
A number of taxis had on Monday operated at 100% capacity – defying the government’s 70% capacity regulations. Tensions between taxi associations and the government are boiling over, with associations complaining that capacity restrictions are having severe financial impacts on the industry. Here is an explainer of the standoff between taxi associations and the government.
The Restaurants Association of SA has demanded that the government lift its ban on restaurants serving alcohol with sit-down meals. From Monday, restaurants can finally reopen since the beginning of the national lockdown. Restaurants have now, however, complained that the ban on serving alcohol will render most establishments unable to reopen because it will be infeasible from a business point of view.
Meanwhile, there appears to be confusion over whether hotels can reopen for leisure purposes. A hotel group and a tourism council said earlier today that hotels can operate for this purpose, saying that some hotels were already opened – but this was later retracted. While the Tourism Department warned that no leisure stayovers may take place, but this goes against new government regulations, which are said not to prohibit the reopening of the sector for leisure purposes.
As a fearsome spread of Covid-19 hits the Eastern Cape, the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality has called on the national government to consider imposing a Level 4 lockdown on the metro. Its acting mayor, Thsonono Buyeye, says residents have not been adhering to rules surrounding Covid-19, and that hospitals were being overwhelmed by an apparent increase in patients.
Seven more airports will be allowed to operate from Wednesday, the Department of Transport has said. At the start of Level 3 lockdown, only OR Tambo, King Shaka and Cape Town airports were allowed to open. Get the full list of reopened airports here.
International headlines
The global death toll from the coronavirus pandemic has topped half a million. In another grim milestone, the number of infections recorded worldwide rose to more than 10 million.
Six months since the start of the new coronavirus outbreak, the pandemic is “not even close to being over”, World Health Organisation chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus has warned.
Nigeria said it was allowing children to go back to school to take exams and permitting cross-country travel despite fears over mounting coronavirus infections.
Our client is renowned for their uncompromising quality and a commitment to ethical business practices. They are looking for a Shift Co-ordinator to assist them at their plant near Durbanville.
EMPLOYMENT TYPE: PERMANENT
SECTOR: DAIRY
START DATE: IMMEDIATE / A.S.A.P
Preferred Minimum Requirements:
• Matric, National Diploma: Food Technology / Production Certificate or Diploma, National Certificate in Food and Beverage Packaging Operation or Technical Qualification, Team Leader / Management / Supervisory Training essential
• Full competence within this role would typically be developed over a period of 5 years from a Matric level or 1 -2 years from a diploma level
• Team leading / Management experience essential
Knowledge:
• Engineering / Mechanical, Material requirement planning, Plant capacity and overall equipment effectiveness (OEE), Product and process specific knowledge
• Knowledge and interpretation of advance process control, Principles of microbiology, biochemistry, understanding of processing equipment, Clean in Place (CIP) procedures, HACCP, waste management, GMP quality control and quality assurance, raw material functions, intermediate knowledge instrumentation, system fault finding, health and safety practices, food legislation.
Skills:
• Managing and leading teams towards high performance
• Implementation of World Class and Lean Manufacturing processes and structures
• Controlling equipment and processes
• Monitoring processes
• Materials and surroundings
• Fault finding
• Communicating with supervisors and team members
• Assessing the resources required to perform a work activity
• Scheduling work activities, testing, Leadership ability, Training skills
Status is working remotely during this lockdown and is committed to the best services as always.
Should you not hear back from us within 10 working days, please consider your application as unsuccessful. We will retain your credentials for future similar roles.
