Here are the health benefits of crying
Crying often perceived as a sign of weakness and being too emotional, however, this action has amazing health benefits that many people probably don’t know.
There are three kinds of tears: reflex, continuous, and emotional. Based on the article from Bustle, reflex tears clear your eyes from irritants while continuous tears lubricate your eyes.
Meanwhile, emotional tears help a person to eliminate stress hormones and promote healing.
“The new enlightened paradigm of what constitutes a powerful man and woman is someone who has the strength and self-awareness to cry,” Dr. Judith Orloff, author of The Empath’s Survival Guide, explained. She aims to destroy the misconception of many people about shedding emotional tears.
A recently published study in Emotion showed that researchers made participants watch either sad videos which will make them cry or other videos that would create other emotions in them such as documentaries or talks.
Then, participants went through Cold Pressor Stress Test (CPT). In this test, the hands of the participants up to their wrists were submerged in cold 0° to 5°C water. While doing this, the heart rate and respiratory rate are continuously measured by the research team and periodically measured cortisol levels from saliva samples.
Cortisol is known to be a stress hormone found in saliva, according to forbes.com.
It was, later on, found out that the participants who cried while they were watching sad videos maintained stable breathing during the stress test while the non-criers had an opposite result. In addition, crying could help you in regulating arousal better, serving as an emotional release.
Researchers also found out that before crying the heart rate of the participants decreased in anticipation of the emotional tears to come out.
“These results suggest that crying may assist in generally maintaining biological homeostasis, perhaps consciously through self-soothing via purposeful breathing and unconsciously through regulation of heart rate,” the study stated.
Shedding emotional stress can emotionally clear sadness and stress. Aside from this, it helps a person to calm down.
According to a statement from the University of Pennsylvania Penn School of Medicine, crying helps your body to get rid of toxins and stress-related hormones. With this, you are helping your body to have lower blood pressure, based on Bustle’s article.
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