Scientists say crying could save your life Your tears could provide an early warning of cancer, diabetes and autoimmune disease Published: Tags: 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.