7 Reasons Crying Can Be Healthy

7 Healthy Reasons to Cry Your Eyes Out

By Therese Borchard

New York Times reporter Benedict Carey referred to tears in a recent piece as "emotional perspiration." Given that I sweat a lot and hate deodorant, I suppose it makes sense that I weep often. But I’m not going to apologize for that, because after a good cry, I always feel cleansed, like my heart and mind just rubbed each other’s backs in a warm bath.

In his intriguing article, "The Miracle of Tears" (answersingenesis.com), in which I found some of the research for this gallery, author Jerry Bergman writes: "Tears are just one of many miracles which work so well that we taken them for granted every day."

Here, then, are seven ways tears and the phenomenon we call "crying" heal us physiologically, psychologically, and spiritually.

Therese J. Borchard writes the Beyond Blue blog on Beliefnet.