Drinking Alcohol Will Help You Get Better at These Five Skills
Drinking alcohol is not just a relaxing activity or a getaway from life's daily struggles or a catalyst for a good party. Alcohol can actually help you have a better life by improving certain creative abilities you might already have.
We are not referring to the stunts you pull when your booze consumption has gone over the top. We are talking scientifically-proven stuff like speaking a new language and dancing better than Michael Jackson.
To realise these special abilities, do not go drinking gallons of whiskey or beer. The secret is to keep it moderate and responsible just as it should be.
Here are 5 Skills Drinking Alcohol Helps With
Dancing like the Stars
Many of us are already in the league of taking a few shots of vodka or a swig of beer before hitting the dance floor. Well, a recent study has confirmed why this works so well and helps us dance better.
A recent study led by Professor David Nutt and The Times asked 55 people to play an Xbox dancing game and monitored their score and their alcohol consumption.
Those who were sober scored an average of 4,400 on the game, while those who’d had six drinks scored 6,200. After that things quickly go downhill, with participants who’d had more than six drinks scoring an average of 4,000.
Long Term Memory
While drinking too much alcohol will lead to a short blip in memory, moderate consumption will surely enhance our memory in the long term.
According to a study by researchers at the University of Exeter, 88 people were given a word learning task to remember certain words by the next day. A certain number of them were allowed to drink booze as much as they liked while the others stayed off alcohol. The next day those who had alcohol to drink performed significantly better, remembering the most words than those who were sober.
“The causes of this effect are not fully understood, but the likely explanation is that alcohol blocks the learning of new information and therefore the brain has more resources available to lay down other recently learned information into long-term memory,” said Professor Celia Morgan professor of Psychopharmacology at Exeter.
Better quality life at middle age
Moderate drinking can lead to a better quality life at middle age according to a 2012 study from the Boston University School of Medicine. The study revealed that people over 50s who drank no more than 14 drinks a week scored more highly in various health indicators than teetotalers or heavy drinkers. When the participants were revisited for a follow up survey, it was discovered that those who had cut back on their moderate drinking also suffered a decline in health.
Speaking in tongues
Alcohol can help you pull a Pentecost Day stunt. According to a study from the University of Liverpool, King’s College and Maastricht University in the Netherlands last October, moderate drinking noticeably improves pronunciation when speaking a second language.
The study had 50 native German speakers who had recently learnt Dutch converse in their second language. 25 of them were given a small amount of alcohol and the other 25 a control substance. When assessed by native Dutch speakers, those who’d had booze were rated significantly better than the non-drinkers, specifically on pronunciation. Jessica Werthmann, one of the researchers, said: “One possible mechanism could be the anxiety-reducing effect of alcohol. But more research is needed to test this”.
Sharpened sense of smell
Drinking alcohol certainly helps improve your sense of smell, little wonder wine connoisseurs appear to inhale the wine before tasting.
In 2014, Yaara Endevelt of the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel asked 20 volunteers to identify subtle changes in smells, then asked some of the group to drink a small shot of vodka and try again. She found that drinkers were better at identifying different odours. The ideal amount of alcohol was two units within an hour for women and three for men.
