It is with great pleasure that I was asked to write the forward to such an important work as: Reversing Dyslexia: Improving Learning and Behavior without Drugs. As a physician who practices integrative medicine, I am often called upon to tackle the hardest cases – the ones where all the other doctors have failed. Dyslexia and other learning behaviors all too sadly fit into that category. And I have to ask myself why?
In my opinion, dyslexia is not an incurable disease. The same holds true for Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) or autism – and other neurologic syndromes that are written off by mainstream medicine as something the patient and the patient’s family are going to have to live with the rest of their lives without any hope for improvement. It’s just not true.
There have been several books and many theories as to why autism is on the rise and how to help your child when everyone else has lost hope and given up or told you to just put your child into an institution. However, there has not been a good text on dyslexia until now. Dr. Books does an amazing job teaching us that dyslexia is not forever. While sparing us a lot of the complicated science, Dr. Books opens us up to the reality, not a science fiction notion, that our brains never stop learning or changing. Because of that, it is possible to rewire the neural pathways in our brain to help with the fight against dyslexia.
Yet, this simple reality, is ignored by traditional educational systems (i.e., medical schools) and the pharmaceutical model of American medicine. That’s why so many people are turning away from the traditional mainstream medical approach for anything but the simplest illness. Traditional medical doctors and practitioners are just not able to grasp the simple facts that there are things that can help even the most dire situations. People no longer wish to remain hopeless. There are natural ways of healing many things, including the brain and the nervous system; therefore, dyslexia can be changed at the cause level.
The promise of this book, and really the premise when it comes right down to it, is that it is meant to teach all of us that dyslexia is reversible. By doing that, Reversing Dyslexia: Improving Learning and Behavior without Drugs is a breakthrough. Dyslexia is not simply having difficulty with reading and writing. It is a disorder that permeates the child’s or the adult’s, entire life – from poor organizational skills to behavior and attitude problems.