Nutrition Nugget: Tears

[00:00:25] So it turns out there is more to tears than you probably realize, and you may be wondering where this is even coming from. So a few months ago, a friend said to me, "I need a good cry." And it was maybe, like, three days later, there was that terror attack on my temple, and I had that good cry. Like, tears, a lot of them.

[00:01:12] And it's interesting because when I think about that scenario now, I'm also reminded of years ago when I rarely cried. It was... It's quite a contrast. So years ago, I was working in hedge funds. I had my health coaching practice on the side, and my boyfriend at the time and I, we were watching a movie, and he cried.

[00:02:06] And what he found was that in the chemical makeup of those tears, they are dramatically different. The tears from the onion are, like, 98% water. The tears from sadness, also mostly water, but also had stress hormones. Specifically, there's one called ACTH, which stands for adrenocorticotropic hormone, and another called leucine enkephalin.

[00:02:54] And what we take from this is that I sort of think of tears as, [00:03:00] or I guess crying, as detoxifying. Like, the hormones found in tears are essentially the waste product of nervous system activity So further research reveals that there's really three different types of tears, and each type has usually about three layers, and so there's a lot of to this.

[00:03:50] Reflex tears are like the ones caused by that onion, or if you're near a grill or a bonfire and there's smoke and you have ... You know, your eyes [00:04:00] start to water. So reflex tears are a defense mechanism, and they protect the eye from irritants or, like, physical damage. So both of these types of tears are mostly water and some proteins.

[00:04:42] So the limbic system is our emotional processing in the brain. And the biochemistry of the emotional tears is dramatically different than basal and reflective tears, and we went through already some of the biochemistry that's in these emotional [00:05:00] tears. What's also interesting is that these emotional tears are uniquely human.

[00:05:46] Crying, the physical release of these emotional tears are one way that we can move through that stress cycle to go through the sympathetic and allow the parasympathetic to turn back on [00:06:00] So this is also kind of interesting because if you or your littles cry and then feel exhausted, or you end up falling asleep, that's the cycle completing.

[00:06:37] And so, you know, over the last seven years since leaving that job, you know, really coming back to myself, those emotions are turned back on again. I can feel them. So one of the pieces of this is when we suppress the expression of emotion, when we don't cry or we hold back those tears, it can keep us [00:07:00] stuck in that stress response in the body.

[00:07:25] And so for some of this, it can really, like this idea of suppressing these emotions, not letting the crying or those tears help us move through the stress response and through the stress cycle, we're stuck, and we have these other feelings, and then we can turn to other numbing agents like food or alcohol or doom scrolling, as the case may be.

[00:08:17] Or even today, like when you see someone with tears on their face, we instinctually have this feeling of wanting to help. And that's not just anecdotal. Like, there is research that shows that seeing tears triggers that kind of a response for us as humans. And so all of this to say is that tears, when held in, also deprive us of this

[00:09:08] So basal tears can become a biomarker. Like, if we look at the volume of each protein in the basal cells, it can offer insight into the function of the immune system, which I think is just fascinating as we look at all these different kinds of biomarkers, especially ones that are non-invasive. So then the last question that often comes up is what about tears of joy versus tears of sadness?

[00:10:07] So I think it's interesting. I'd be curious to see more research on the tears of joy piece of it, but there you have it, my friend. I think the bottom line is we don't need to hide our tears. We don't need to apologize for them, and know that they are truly serving our health Frankly on every level, like physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually, all the ways.

[00:10:55] Dr. Alexandra Geyer, thank you, thank you again one more time for joining us this [00:11:00] week.

[00:11:03] Jenn Trepeck: My pleasure. And friends, if you're not already, join us in the Happy Healthy Hub. You'll go to asaladwithasideoffries.com/membership. This shows your support for this podcast, this community, and above all your health.

[00:11:31] Congratulations for making yourself and your health a priority. Thanks so much for joining us. Be sure to click subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast platform, share us with a friend, and we'll be back next week. Always remember, you deserve it and you are worth it. Happy, healthy.