Crying is good for you
Big girls may not want show their tears as the Four Season's classic would have us believe, but why not?
While most associate weeping with weakness, the scientific truth is shedding emotional tears may be the body's way of resetting the hormonal balance so undue stress can be vented chemically – that is, actual stress hormones leaving the body by way of tears, much like sweating removes toxins – so a person can get back on track.
Crying also diffuses the undue effects of pent-up stress like headaches, high blood pressure, high blood sugar and a weakened immune syndrome.
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Check out some surprisingly benefits of weeping as outlined by HealthLine:
1. Detoxifies the body
Whereas continuous tears (those that keep the eye lubricated) contain 98 percent water, emotional tears contain stress hormones and other toxins. Researchers have theorized that crying flushes these things out of your system, though more research is needed in this area.
2. Helps self-soothe
Researchers have found that crying activates the parasympathetic nervous system (PNS). The PNS helps your body rest and digest. The benefits aren't immediate, however. It may take several minutes of shedding tears before you feel the soothing effects of crying.
3. Dulls pain
Crying for long periods of time releases oxytocin and endogenous opioids, otherwise known as endorphins. These feel-good chemicals can help ease both physical and emotional pain. Once the endorphins are released, your body may go into somewhat of a numb stage. Oxytocin can give you a sense of calm or well-being. It's another example of how crying is a self-soothing action.
4. Improves mood
When you sob, you take in many quick breaths of cool air. Breathing in cooler air can help regulate and even lower the temperature of your brain. As a result, your mood may improve after a sobbing episode.
5. Rallies support
From the time you were a baby, crying has been an attachment behavior. Its function is in many ways to obtain comfort and care from others. (More on this later!)
6. Helps you recover from grief
Crying is particularly important during periods of grieving. It may even help you process and accept the loss of a loved one.
7. Restores emotional balance
Researchers at Yale University believe crying in this way may help to restore emotional equilibrium. When you're incredibly happy or scared about something and cry, it may be your body's way to recover from experiencing such a strong emotion.
8. Helps baby breathe
The first cry is what helps a baby's lungs adapt to life in the outside world. Crying also helps babies clear out any extra fluid in the lungs, nose, and mouth.
Now, prepare yourself for the big shocker that has many new parents confused, relieved, courting a shame-soaked guilt and maybe – just maybe – putting a cork in their own emotional outbreaks to get on with the business of parenting. Crying sometimes …
9. Helps baby sleep
In a small study on infant sleep, 43 participants used graduated extinction, also known as controlled crying, to put their babies down to bed. With controlled crying, babies were left to cry for a set number of minutes before intervention from their parents. The crying increased both the sleep length and reduced the number of times the infants woke during the night.
Here's a quick video to give that harried parent in your life an idea of what's being proposed:
Translated, that means a little crying can be a very good thing. Our bodies know what they're doing, even if at times big girls (and guys) don't. And as What To Expect reports, in the long run, "You're doing her (your baby, big or small) a favor by helping her learn to go to sleep (or deal with stress) on her own."
Mud pies may be good for you
Does digging in the dirt make you feel good? Kids sure like it. Gardeners, too. But hey, could be this natural pull to Mother Earth is due to a microbial agent found amid the cakey, flakey brown stuff that doubles as an anti-depressant, even as it produces fabulous flowers and an abundance of goodies to eat.
Quartz Media reports, "Your garden has its own microbiome, and research suggests it's good for you. Our health depends on the flourishing microbiome in our guts – and on how much of the natural world's microbiome we let infiltrate."
But for the most part, modern life precludes dirt. Antiseptic hand gels and plastic-covered everything keep us away from the messiness of life (a good and necessary thing in flu season). When the sun shines, however, and the time for contemplating that garden approaches, you may want to consider another approach. Get dirty. Or at least get connected with the reality that not all bacteria is bad for you, as explained in the short video below:
"In 2004, Mary O'Brien, an oncologist at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London, published a paper with unexpected results: She injected lung cancer patients with a common, harmless soil bacteria, Mycobacterium vaccae, to see if it could prolong their life. M. vaccae had some success in earlier trials where it was tested for its abilities to fight drug-resistant pulmonary tuberculosis and boost immune system response."
Sadly, O'Brien's hopes weren't realized in the fight against lung cancer. But, and this is a biggie for anyone facing down life-threatening illness, "Her patients were happier, expressed more vitality, and better cognitive functioning – in short, it reduced the emotional toll of advanced cancer."
Wow.
Vitamin "B" is good for you
That's beer, folks. And, while excess is to be avoided, there are health benefits associated with that amber brew that many may not know about. Take a look see at the following video to catch up on the science behind enjoying a cold one:
Beer, according to New York Daily News, "make you happier (according to science!), and a new study from the journal Scientific Reports shows it could help prevent diabetes. Xanthohumol, a key ingredient used to make beer, reduced the likelihood of insulin resistance in mice who were fed high-fat diets."
Who knew?