Is Crying Good for Your Eyes: 4 Reasons to Sob

Sometimes I enjoy a good cry. There is something cleansing about it. It just feels good, cathartic.

We use terms like “cry your eyes out” and that made me wonder…

Is crying as healthy for your eyes as it is for your emotional well-being?

So, I set about to do some research and I found an answer that could make you want to rent Beaches, the Notebook and just about every tear-jerker movie ever made. Why? Because it turns out crying is indeed quite healthy–for your eyes and for your overall health!

According to Jerry Bergman’s “The Miracle of Tears,” sobbing is something we should all make a regular practice for these main four reasons:

1. Crying is Antibacterial:

Rinsing those eyeballs with some cleaner labeled “antibacterial” would be dangerous and painful. But, fortunately, there’s no need! Tears contain a fluid called lysozyme that can kill 90 to 95 percent of all bacteria in the course of a few minutes. According to Bergman, if we didn’t have tears in our eyes to kill all the germs, microbes, and other nasty little bugs that get in there all day long, many of us would be constantly battling eye infections…that we wouldn’t win!

2. Crying Improves our Vision:

Think of your tears like the wiper fluid that clears away the goo from your car’s windshield. Tears help us see better because they keep our eyeballs and eyelids lubricated. According to Berman, without tears, our mucous membranes in our eyes would become dehydrated and in the long run, in addition to much discomfort, most of us would lose our vision because of this lack of hydration.

3. Crying Releases Toxins:

According to biochemist William Frey, whose work Bergman cites, tears that are cried out of an emotional response usher toxins out of your body. If you are stressed and suffering, crying will help. To prove this — they actually tested what was in the tears after people cried in response to peeling onions and then in response to an emotional movie. More toxins were released when the crying followed a genuine emotional response.

4. Crying Lowers Stress:

When you are stressed out your body’s chemical composition begins to change. Through the act of crying, your body cleanses itself of some of the chemicals built up that are contributing to the stress your body feels. In fact, crying reduces the body’s manganese level–a mineral that is known to impact mood and is found in much greater concentration in your tears than in your blood.

Now that you know how healthy crying is, there’s officially no need to hold it back. Here’s to sobbing for your health!

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