Crying is a common human action, and it can be triggered by many different emotions. But why do humans cry?
Researchers have found that crying can benefit both your body and your mind, and these benefits begin at birth with a baby’s first cry.
We enter the world crying, but for some reason, as we get older, the act of shedding tears becomes seen as a sign of weakness in both men and women. But the involuntary act of crying is actually good for the mind, body, and soul in many ways.
Don’t bottle up your tears; if you do you’ll be doing more harm than good.
To find out why, here are the health benefits of crying you probably didn’t know about:
1. You face your emotions
The people who say they don’t cry are most likely hiding from the fact that they have something to cry about. Everyone has something to cry about, and there’s no shame in that. Facing an emotional crisis is hard enough to deal with in itself; holding back tears for the sake of saving face during an emotional time takes even more effort, and will only serve to increase stress.
2. You release toxins
You don’t only cry when you’re sad. Crying is also your body’s response to too much stress. When you cry, you rid your body of cortisol. Cortisol is a hormone associated with stress that can potentially cause damage to your health if your levels become unbalanced. Chronically high levels of the hormone can cause a variety of issues such as: sleep problems, a lowered immune response, and abdominal weight gain.
3. You kill bacteria
Your tears wash bacteria away from your eyes. This is due to your tears contain lysozyme, which is a hormone found in human milk and saliva. When you cry, lysozyme is released, killing over 90% of bacteria in its path. So not only does crying release toxins from your body, it also kills other toxins lurking on the body’s surface.
4. You improve your mood
Crying relieves stress by releasing certain hormones from the body. Obviously, this has a tremendously positive effect on your overall mood. A study conducted in 2008 by the University of South Florida showed that 90% of people who cried during stressful situations reported a significant increase in their mood. Those that don’t cry have one less outlet to rely on when facing difficulties in life.
