Analysis:

Everyone will cry. People will burst into tears when they are sad and excited. Even when there is no strong emotion, they often burst into tears because of some external factors, such as eating spicy food or cutting onions. Even in normal times, tears will be secreted, but the amount is too small to be detected.

But sometimes, tears shed in different situations have different meanings to people's physical and mental health, especially when emotions are strong. Tears may also have a certain excretion function, which can excrete too many harmful hormones produced in the body when people are sad, so that people's sadness can be alleviated.

Then, how are tears produced, what role do they play, and what is the relationship with people's emotions? When people are very sad, what kind of harm will it do to the body if they don't cry? The reporter interviewed Ji Xiaolong, director of the Pathology Department of the Armed Police General Hospital.

Ordinary tears "swept" the eyes.

In the fossa above the human orbit, there is a special tissue called lacrimal gland, which can produce tears without emotional participation. However, such tears are just a pure physiological reaction, which can be divided into two situations. One is the tears produced with the blink of an eye, which are mainly composed of salts and bactericidal substances, and have a cleaning and lubricating effect on the eyes.

The other is tears caused by external * * * or conditioned reflex, such as cutting onions, eating spicy food, having foreign bodies in your eyes, or being blown by the wind. This kind of tears is a protective reaction, which also has a certain cleaning effect on eyes, and at the same time prevents foreign bodies from invading, and its amount is large and is not subject to subjective control.

The secretion of emotional tears is influenced by hormones.

According to Ji Xiaolong, when people are in high spirits, tears are no longer a natural physiological reaction, but are controlled by nerves. There are nerves in the brain that control the lacrimal gland to secrete tears. When people's external emotions (such as sadness and excitement) reach a certain level, they will secrete a lot of hormones.

When the hormone reaches a certain level, it will affect the brain nerve that controls the lacrimal gland, prompting it to send instructions to the lacrimal gland and secrete tears. Of course, people's emotional intensity will also affect the amount of tears secreted.

Depression can produce harmful hormones.

Ji Xiaolong pointed out that hormones secreted by different emotions have different effects on human body. For example, hormones secreted during excitement are beneficial, while hormones produced during depression are harmful.

Especially when you are depressed, your hormones will increase. If it is not excreted in time, it may affect the normal activities of human cells and even bring diseases, especially gastrointestinal tract.

Hormones can promote the secretion of gastric acid, which will corrode the stomach wall and cause diseases such as gastric ulcer. Crying and shedding tears can eliminate excess hormones in the body.

Ji Xiaolong believes that everyone has a certain hormone level, which is suitable for this person's physical condition. Too high or too low hormone levels will have a negative impact on physical condition.

When people are sad, harmful hormones in the body increase, and naturally a physiological response is needed to balance the hormone level in the body, and tears may assume such a responsibility to eliminate excessive hormones in the body.

It is understood that the psychiatric laboratory of Ramsey Medical Center in Sao Paulo, USA, has asked more than 200 men and women to do a "crying experiment". As a result, 85% of women and 73% of men said that they felt much better after crying, and the measured value of depression decreased by about 40% on average.

Experts from the center also analyzed the tears produced by crying and found that when people are sad, tears contain leucine-enkephalin complex and prolactin, two harmful chemicals. By crying, tears can excrete these chemicals and relieve psychological stress. These substances are not found in tears shed by other pure physiological functions.

Therefore, some experts suggest that when people feel sad, they must not be forced to control it, especially for men, they can "cry as much as they want" and don't harm their health for fear of hurting their self-esteem.