Tom Bodett Stories Crying from the audio release, Exploded , Gang of Seven Of all the bodily functions humans have to deal with, crying is by far the hardest one for men to handle. It s no great secret that men prefer not to cry, and women do a whole lot more of it than we do. Of course, it might be argued that women have a whole lot more to cry about, but that s another discussion altogether. Even though it s rarely discussed around the beer coolers and campfires, men do feel a need to cry probably about as often as women. But the reasons that we don t cry are probably not as important as the reasons why we should.
New research points out, as new research is prone to do, some startling facts about crying.
It seems they ve found that tears contain a whole bunch of nasty toxins the body makes under stress or emotional duress. These toxins, when left to their own devices are most interested in causing ulcers, colitis, and generally serve to drive a person to an early grave. We ve known for years that men have a better chance of developing stress- related diseases than women. This has so far been blamed on the tendency in men to take themselves too seriously, work too hard, and generally conduct themselves like perfect idiots at least half of the time. It s a popular argument that s hard to poke holes in, but crying may be offering us an out on this embarrassing topic.