Here's how to look healthy without the swollen eyelids

admit it: the best part about crying isn’tthe release, or the raw emotions -- it’s how freakin sexy your face looks when you’reall done tearing up. hey folks, welcome back to dnews, laci greenhere! it’s a phenomenon the internet has so kindly coined as “ugly crying” - whenyou’re so upset that your face gets all contorted and puffy and um….ugly looking.but you know what? i refuse to call it ugly. crying is beautiful…..ish. okay fine it’sa little ugly. funny thing about crying is that there isa huge gender gap. women are much more likely to let themselves cry than men - clockingin an average of 47 cries per year, while men only cry about 7 times per year. i actuallyfeel kind of bad for dudes. crying feels good.

why aren’t boys crying more???? there area lot of complicated reasons, but basically it’s a difference psychologists have repeatedlylinked to cultural norms. how you’re allowed to express your feelings differs based onyour gender. for instance, as a culture we find it more acceptable for men to deal withtheir angry emotions by getting into physical fights. while the gender divides in crying are betterunderstood, why we cry and what exactly triggers it varies from person to person and situationto situation. but the universal experience of “ugly crying” can be traced back tosimple anatomy. in order to produce tears, the lacrimal glands in your eyes have to getto work. tear fluid is produced with the help

of blood, which comes through thick and fastwhen the blood vessels in your eyes dilate. normally you can’t see those vessels...butwhen they widen up, you can tell they’re there, alright/ all those tiny little vesselsswelling up to produce your tears make your eyes look “blood shot”. but what about the puffy eyes? this happensbecause, if you’ve ever had the absolute pleasure of tasting your own tears, you’llnotice that they’re really salty. the salt causes water retention around your eyes, causingthem to puff up. salt isn’t the cause for your entire face becoming a puffy, bloatedmess however. the reason for that is actually a bit more complicated - it comes down toyour fight-or-flight system. this is the part

of your sympathetic nervous system that’sactivated when your body is under stress. when you’re angry, when you’re scaredor threatened - your pupils dilate and the adrenaline flows, causing your heart rateto increase. crying is basically the same - especially if you’re holding your breatha bit and not breathing steadily, it causes blood to pump into your face, straining yourmuscles, and making your face red and puffy. add a nice smattering of snot mixed with tearsand drool and well….you’re a masterpiece, baby. thanks for joining me for dnews everyone,are you an ugly crier? tell me about it down below and we’ll see you next time with morescience updates!

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