Does drinking relieve stress? Yes and no

Your stress meter is moving at whirligig speed. Maybe someone you love got hurt. Or you're giving a h-u-g-e presentation tomorrow. Or your best office bud just got laid off, and everybody's wondering who's next. You head home, thinking, "Boy, I need a drink."

But will that Grey Goose, Beaujolais or brewski really take the edge off your stress? Or could it make matters worse? Maybe both.

We've seen new evidence that alcohol and high anxiety feed off each other in individual ways. Yes, having a drink when you're a bundle of nerves can lower your levels of the stress hormone cortisol. So far, so good. But in some people (you?), drinking when you're super-tense underscores the dark side of whatever stressed you out and leaves you depressed. In others, intense stress overwhelms alcohol's relaxing effects, so you react by having another drink . . . and another.

OUR BOTTOM LINE If you're just kicking back with friends or family, sharing a drink (one for women, up to two for men) can be a healthy pleasure. It eases your risk of heart attack and stroke, and makes that almond-crusted trout even tastier.

But (and it's a big but) if you're stressed to the max and know from experience that alcohol bites back when you're tenser than the head of the Fed, we have a smarter way to unwind: walk.

Just a 30-minute outing cuts stress and anxiety by 30 percent. Plus, you'll burn calories rather than drink them. That'll improve your mood when you step on a scale.