In this post in this thread about crying at work, Zoe cites an article that claims, among other things, that crying is good because it releases toxins from the body.
That struck me as kind of vague, New Agey, heal-your-chi kind of thinking, and I responded that I believed the article’s credibility was undercut by the claim.
Cartooniverse took me to task for that response in this post, in which he said in part:
Now, reviewing the article that Cartooniverse offers, I don’t find any particular claims about toxins – it does claim that emotional tears have more proteins than reflex tears, but I don’t think that’s fair to describe as “toxins” without more detail.
But perhaps there is more detail, and I’m dead wrong. (Wouldn’t be the first time!) But as yet, I’m not seeing it.
So: GQ time. Do emotional tears release toxins from the body at all, or in some greater measure than reflex tears?
I’ve found no credible evidence that tears help shed toxins. A particular “holistic” nursing journal makes this claim, but backs it up with no evidence.
This, combined with my own knowledge of tear physiology, makes me conclude that tears have no role in relieving the body of toxins.
In humans, it is the liver and the kidneys which do the vast, vast majority of the work in relieving the body of toxic ingestions and breakdown products.
A Google search on “crying release toxins” turns up tons of sites that make the claim that crying from stress, anger, fear, et cetera releases toxins. If you read through the actual sites many of them state that this is backed by “a medical study,” “many studies have shown,” “researchers find that…”, et cetera. Not one of these (at least, in the first four pages of results) cites any actual published studies, much less controlled experiments or peer-reviewed surveys. A quick search on PubMed shows nothing about crying and toxins. Given the lack of physiological mechanism for extracting said toxins from the blood and lymphatic systems (which is primarily done by the kidneys and liver) I’d call this claim nonsense.
That isn’t to say that crying isn’t a good way of relieving stress for some people, and that physiological benefits are not received therefrom (though personally crying, on the rare occasions that I do it, makes me feel worse, physically and emotionally) but this whole excreting toxins claim is pseudoscientific gibberish without any medical basis. It goes right up there with tears being a method for excreting salt per the Aquatic Ape Hypothesis.
Or, upon review, what Qadgop the Mercotan.
Annie-Xmas, lipids and urea are excreted through the skin, but their faculty is more to protect the skin and provide cooling. The primary method for excreting toxins is via the lower GI system.
Well, the shedding of tears does in fact help to rid the body of toxins, irritants, and the like. If they happen to have found their way onto the surface of the eye.
But of course that’s not the same as them being an outlet for some kind of stored up toxins. If such exist at all.
Still, there is that histamine response which is sometimes triggered by crying.
The resulting cascade of effects might very well promote the elimination of some bodily toxins. Naturally, there’s no easily found evidence for that, and I doubt that anyone will ever take the time to look into it.
I’ve never heard of crying releasing toxins, but I do remember reading that crying releases endorphins. This at least explains why I generally feel better after a good cry.
All that means is that lacrimal glands have some mechanism which concentrates manganese. It does NOT mean that crying is a necessary process to moderate the body’s manganese levels or that high levels of manganese in tears means you have an unhealthily high level of it in your system.
Brought in from the original thread at Bricker’s request:
I realize that Wikipedia is not an ideal cite, but there were several mentions in its article on crying that match what others have tried to communicate in this thread.
First, emotional crying (as opposed to crying due to eye irritation) tends to make us feel better.
Second, the chemical make up of tears shed while under stress is different from tears shed at other times.
Cites:
7.) Skorucak A. “The Science of Tears.” ScienceIQ.com.
8.) Why do we Cry,Walter, Chip,Source:Scientific American Mind; Dec2006, Vol. 17 Issue 6, p44, 8p,ISSN 1555-2284
10.) http://www.alzheimersinfo.org/index...rief-and-loss-2 personal page of Frey WH with quote from his book
From Wikipedia’s article on adrenocorticotropic hormone:
Adrenaline, cortisone, and their related hormones are produced in greater quantities when a person is under stress. Chronic stress leads to a build up of these hormones, which can have toxic effects. While the liver and kidneys are responsible for the vast majority of hormone breakdown and removal, I don’t think it’s a huge leap to see that tear production under stress could provide the body with a supplemental route for removal.
Which is a a very different question than the implied “is it a good, or primary, or secondary, or necessary means of removing toxins”
It’s quite possible tears remove toxins purely as a side effect of the fact that those toxins are present in the body while under stress and any liquid released from the body will have a higher concentration of those toxins than under normal conditions.
Also, I think the idea is that the body produces stress hormones for a purpose, but after their purpose ends they are no longer needed and perhaps detrimental. The hormones’ production may be the result of the body’s somewhat-maladaptive use of the fight-or-flight response, better suited for acute threats, in chronic stress situations. This would imply that production is either useful or inevitable, but the hormones or their byproducts still need to be eliminated.
Dunno. But that was not the point of the question.
What Harriet said.
Adrenaline, cortisone, and (I presume) adrenocorticotropic hormone are vital hormones for the body’s flight or fight reaction. Quoting again from Wikipedia, the flight or fight reaction involves the following:
[ul]
[li]Acceleration of heart and lung action [/li][li]Inhibition of stomach and intestinal action [/li][li]General effect on the sphincters of the body [/li][li]Constriction of blood vessels in many parts of the body [/li][li]Liberation of nutrients for muscular action [/li][li]Dilation of blood vessels for muscles [/li][li]Inhibition of Lacrimal gland (responsible for tear production) and salivation [/li][li]Dilation of pupil [/li][li]Relaxation of bladder [/li][li]Inhibition of erection [/li][li]Auditory Exclusion (loss of hearing) [/li][li]Tunnel Vision (loss of peripheral vision)[/li][/ul]
That’s great if you’re evading a predator, but not so good if you just had an argument with a coworker. If you go through this over and over, the hormones involved in this acute stress response have delitirious effects on the health - surpressing the immune system, triggers or worsens depression and cardiovascular disease, and chronic anxiety.
As crying is a response to prolonged stress in many people, and crying does, at some level, rid the body of at least one stress hormone, perhaps it is an adaptation that helps us deal with stress in a positive manner.
Qadgop, when I see the phrase “purge the body of toxins” my mind immediately starts sending up a red flag, although I understand that the phrase technically could be applied to the kidneys and liver. Is that a medically valid way to react?