Why Cry

Since I've shed quite a few tears over the past month I started wondering about crying. Specifically, emotional crying since humans are the only mammal generally accepted to cry emotional tears.

Turns out that the story is a bit more interesting than I expected.

From the San Mateo Daily Journal...

Until the Industrial Revolution, crying in public was considered normal, even for men. The ancient Greeks, Romans, and Hebrews, as part of their funeral rites, would cry into “lacrimatories.” These small vials full of tears were often sealed up and buried with the deceased as a tribute. During the 19th Century Victorian period, the grieving collected their tears in ornate bottles. When tears evaporated from the tightly corked bottles, official mourning ended. But with the advent of the Industrial Age, diligent, unemotional workers were needed and crying became a private matter.

Biochemist and tear expert Dr. William Frey has researched chemical differences between protective and emotional tears. Emotional tears contain three chemicals released by the body during stress: 1) Leucine-enkephalin — a mood-elevating and pain reducing endorphine 2) ACTH — a hormone considered to be the most reliable indicator of stress and 3) Prolactin — the hormone that regulates milk production in mammals.

Frey believes that [emotional] tearing may be involved in removing toxic substances or waste products from the body. He posits that this is why so many people report feeling better after crying. The venting of emotions is helpful, but the actual chemical composition of the discharged tears may be involved in this feeling of well-being.

There is a 24 percent higher concentration of protein in emotional tears than in irritant tears. This protein carries the molecular code for emotions throughout the body. Frey also states that our tear gland concentrates manganese, a mineral involved with our moods, and tears remove this concentrated mineral from our body. The concentration of manganese is 30 times greater in tears than in blood serum. And while irritant tears were 98 percent water, emotional tears contained many more toxins.