Health Tips: Why Crying is Good For You
|Think about it, the first thing you did when you were born was to
cry. And if you didn’t, everyone would have been worried to death; some
babies are even spanked or pinched so that they would. Now, why do you
think that is? After delivery, the cry helps the baby take in some air
to its lungs for the first time, thus expanding them.
While you
may not like that you cried (err not that you knew though), but hearing
that loud cry was music to your parents’ ears and proof that you could
breathe outside the womb on your own.
But now as adults, we hold
back the tears, wanting to be strong; because crying is seen as a sign
of weakness. When in truth crying is good and beneficial to our health.
Biochemist,
Dr. William Frey at the Ramsey Medical Center in Minneapolis found out
reflex tears are 98% water, however emotional tears contain stress
hormones that are excreted from the body through tears. After studying
the composition of tears, Dr. Frey found that emotional tears shed these
hormones and other toxins which accumulate during stress. Additional
studies also suggest that crying stimulates the production of
endorphins, our body’s natural pain killer and “feel-good” hormones.” No
wonder, after you’ve had a good cry you’re just relieved and feel much
better.
When you cry it helps you move forward and relieves stress.
It’s one therapy that can help reduce emotional stress. When you let
some negative emotions go unchecked; it can affect your body physical,
psychologically and what not; which may lead to damage of the heart or
brain and other stress-related diseases. According to Dr William frey,
‘crying is not only a human response to sorrow and frustration, it’s a
healthy one’. Sometimes to get through losing a relationship, losing a
friend or even failing at something all you need is to let the tears
flow.
Crying improves your mood.
Have you ever
cried so much about a situation and felt your heart was going to burst
out of your chest, but felt much better afterwards? You feel a relief
and feel liberated. Crying is cleansing, it rids the body of icky
substances and releases chemicals that help us deal with the pain. After
a good cry your head is clear enough to handle situations more
rationally and positively.
Crying also protects and cleanses the eye.
Remember
when you are cutting onions and start to tear up? There’s a chemical
from the onion that is released and it creates a sulphuric acid. Your
tear glands produce tears that wash and get rid of the chemical from the
eye.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with being in touch with
your feelings. Big girls/boys don’t cry? Durh they do and you should
too. Crying is not a sign of weakness rather it’s a sign of strength and
shows how strong you are. So next time you are trying to be tough and
suppress those tears remember how much better you would feel and how
much stronger it would make you become if you would just let go.