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Scientists say crying could save your life

Your tears could provide an early warning of cancer, diabetes and autoimmune disease

Scientists are developing new ways to spot illnesses early, and they say crying could save your life.

According to an article from the daily mail, your tears could provide an early warning for cancer, diabetes, autoimmune disease and even predict your risk of developing Alzheimer’s.

Engineers at Kobe University in Japan are actually developing a device that uses tears to detect breast cancer quickly and easily.

They say our tears are made from precious traces of chemicals in our bodies that can be used as markers of illness.

Experts say using tear samples greatly reduces the costs of testing and allows for much faster cancer detection as well as help people with diabetes monitor their blood sugar without a finger-prick.

Researchers conducted a study of 100 people with type 2 diabetes who they showed that the levels of glycoalbumin (a modified protein which reflects the average blood glucose levels over the preceding two weeks) in tears correlated with the levels in blood.

The lead researcher, Dr. Masakazu Aihara, told the European Association for the Study of Diabetes last September that they are now fine-tuning their system for commercial use.


About the Authors

Gretchen Nowroozi was born and raised in Houston. She started working at KSAT as an intern in 2019 after graduating from Michigan State University. She is a producer for Good Morning San Antonio.

Roslyn Jimenez headshot

Roslyn Jimenez is a news producer at KSAT. Before joining the team, she was a producer and video editor at KIII-TV and a radio intern in Corpus Christi. She graduated from Del Mar College with an Associate's degree in political science and liberal arts. Roslyn is family-oriented and loves spending time with her fiancé and chihuahua Paco.

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