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Is Crying Healthy?

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Biochemist William Frey has spent 15 years as head of a research team studying tears. The team found out that, although tear production organs were once thought to be no longer necessary for survival, tears actually have numerous critical functions.

Crying is a way to relieve stress and is considerably healthier than bottling up your feelings and suppressing your inner feelings—regardless of your gender.

Emotional tears are a response which only humans have, for only people can weep. All animals that live in air produce tears to lubricate their eyes. But only people possess the marvelous system that produces tears.

One of the most obvious functions of tears is to lubricate your eye and eyelid, but they also prevent dehydration of various mucous membranes—and anyone with the “dry eye” problem knows how painful this can be. A severe lack of this lubrication produces a condition requiring immediate intervention to save the patient’s eyesight.

Another important function of tears is that they bathe your eyes in lysozyme, one of the most effective antibacterial and antiviral agents known. Lysozyme, from lysos, to split, and enzyme (it is an enzyme which chemically splits certain compounds) is the major source of the antigerm traits of tears. Amazingly, lysozyme inactivates 90 to 95 per cent of all bacteria in a mere five to 10 minutes. Without it, eye infections would be far more common.

Not being able to secrete tears produces burning and redness, and light itself becomes bothersome. The eyes itch and have a gritty feeling. One sufferer described the condition as similar to having sand in their eye. In time, ulcers develop on the cornea and loss of its transparency often occurs.

Nerves that exit in the neck go to the eyes and the tear ducts, controlling and regulating their function. Interference with those nerves could in fact be one of the causes of “dry eye.”

Bottom line? Crying is a healthy, normal, and a healing reaction for irritated eyes. When you suppress your tears, you can affect your overall physical condition. Crying can be good for you!

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Dr. Erica Asks some important questions of interest to North Houston residents - Chiropractor North Houston Dr. Erica Asks...

What's the difference between sick care and health care?
Sick care is largely about relieving or suppressing symptoms. Health care is about improving performance. While sick care is about how you feel, health care is about how you function. Sick care is what you do to treat an obvious problem, and health care is what you do to avoid the problem and advance your well-being.
What is the purpose of pain?
Pain prompts many North Houston folks to begin chiropractic care. But pain isn't the problem! Pain is just how your body alerts you that a limit has been reached (or exceeded), that something isn't working right and that some type of change is needed. As a chiropractor, my job is finding the underlying cause and recommending the changes needed to bring your body back into balance.