How does having a drink help a person relax?

Host: How does having a drink help a person relax?

Judith W. Cousins: When a person has a drink, what happens to them physiologically, is that their nervous system starts to slow down a bit and chemically the front part of their brain, the prefrontal cortex that s the place where we regulate our emotions and regulate our behavior and when we start to drink then our inhibitions start to calm down a bit, start to loosen up. So, that helps people to relax.

The other piece of that is psychological. When people are in a situation where they are having a glass of wine or a beer, just the idea of being with friends or just the idea for sitting down and having a beer watching a football game, that helps them to relax as well. So, there is a psychological, social and physiological reason.