Although they may appear to be nothing more than water, our tears are actually quite complex.
Your tears contain some salt, as you’ve tasted when you’ve had a good cry.
But are there other ingredients in tears?
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Are some tears different from others?
These glands produce tears from your blood plasma, selecting some components but not others.
Tears keep the surface of oureyeballsclean and moist and help protect our eyes from damage.
Our tears also contain natural antibiotics called lysozymes.
Lysozymes help to keep the surface of the eye healthy by fighting off bacteria and viruses.
You’ve probably shed a few tears when chopping onions or when you get dust in your eyes.
Emotional tears have been found to have more hormones, including prolactin, adrenocorticotropic hormone, and leucine enkephalin.
These changes can lead to developing dry eyes.
American Academy of Ophthalmology.Facts about tears.
American Academy of Ophthalmology.All about emotional tears.
Dartt DA, Willcox MD.Complexity of the tear film: importance in homeostasis and dysfunction during disease.Exp Eye Res.
2013;117:13. doi:10.1016/j.exer.2013.10.008
American Optometric Association.Dry eye.
