Dyslexia
The Concise Oxford Dictionary defines dyslexia as word blindness and its
derivation is from the Greek lexis meaning speech or language.
In November 2013 for the first time in my 13 years as a kinesiologist I saw a young girl who had been
diagnosed with dyslexia. Christine (not her real name) was 6½ years old. Her mother also told me
that her behaviour had been assessed as slightly autistic with erratic and agitated behaviour.
Christine had special tutors to help with her learning but there was difficulty in getting her to focus
and concentrate.
She also told me that Christine had a history of ear infections and pneumonia as a very young child.
There had been many courses of antibiotics to deal with these infections. Christine’s mother had
taken her off all dairy product about 10 days before she saw me and she said Christine was a much
different child in terms of temperament. Ear infections in young children are often connected with
dairy allergy or intolerance. When I looked at her tongue it had a white coat and her mother said
that she had been worse with the whole of the inside of the mouth being coated in white. This is
indicative of oral and likely intestinal candidiasis. She had been taking coconut oil which has can
compromise candida.
Before doing any kinesiology on Christine I did my own assessment of her dyslexia. I pointed to a “b”
and asked her what letter it was to which she answered a “d”. When I pointed to a “d” she said it
was a “b”. I then asked her to draw the “b” by pointing at it but not saying which letter it was. To
my surprise she drew a “b” and not a “d”. The same occurred for the “d”. However when I asked
her to tell me what the letter was she switched them as described. This indicated to me that there
was a disconnection between sight, speech and comprehension and that dyslexia is not entirely a
problem to do with sight interpretation of the letter.
We see all images upside down and our brain reverses the image so that we see it correctly.
Dyslexia seems then to be something more than just a problem with that brain pathway as the “b”
would not look like a “d” if that was the case.
The area of the brain which enables us to produce meaningful sounds, to assemble words and
sentences is Broca’s area. The ability to comprehend speech and language is located in Wernicke’s
area. People can have problems with speech and comprehension when there are lesions in these
parts of the brain. However because of my experience with Christine I consider it doubtful that this
is the case with children affected by dyslexia.
By way of background my kinesiology practice is based around the use of light on various reflex
points on the head and body. I use both full spectrum light and the individual colours that make up
the light spectrum. My method has been developed over the past 7 years based on my clinical
observations and recording of results. The light tools I use are those developed by a German
acupuncturist Peter Mandell. I do not use his method which is vastly different from my own.
I also use muscle testing techniques to test for nutrient deficiency and excess. I sometimes combine
this with hair tissue mineral analysis. In Christine’s case her mother had arranges separate blood
tests for nutrient deficiency and excess and heavy metal screening. The results appear below.
The first thing I did with Christine was to test for nutrient deficiency and found that her muscle
testing responded to zinc. Muscles that originally tested “weak” tested “strong” or in were in a
normal homeostatic state after the zinc was placed on her. The subsequent blood tests showed
Christine to be very low in both zinc and selenium and moderately high in mercury which
antagonises both zinc and selenium.
I then worked using light on two points on the head. One I call the crown centre and the other in the
middle of the forehead appears to affect the whole brain. I worked for about 15 minutes and then
did a point on the back of the neck just below the occiput. This point is in my experience connected
with physical, emotional and mental trauma. That point appears to be connected with the point in
the middle of the forehead. In Christine’s case I suspect the trauma was birth.
There is some evidence to suggest that the points I have described in the middle of the forehead and
on the neck just below the occiput do have a connection and may have different polarity albeit very
tiny in voltage. Work by orthopaedic surgeon Robert O. Becker found that the voltage reading on
these points varied with levels of consciousness being strongest during heightened physical and
mental activity. Becker speculated that the points were connected like the ends of a magnet creating
two poles and a small magnetic field which was affected by brain activity or perhaps affected brain
activity1. How would light then affect these points? One possibility is that it could do so by changing
the polarity. Trauma may fix the polarity in a certain way thereby affecting function. Light is known
to affect the electromagnetic bond between hydrogen and oxygen. In photosynthesis light splits
hydrogen from oxygen (i.e. splits H2O into H2 and O). Hydrogen combines with carbon dioxide to
form sugars for the plant and oxygen is a waste product.
I then got Christine to repeat the exercise I mentioned earlier of identifying the letters “b” and “d”.
When I pointed to the letter “b” she correctly identified it as a b. Likewise with the “d”. A week later
Christine’s mother called me to tell me about the blood test result which confirmed the low zinc
assessment. I had suggested that Christine take a zinc drink supplement and this was subsequently
confirmed by her doctor. Christine’s mother said that Christine had for the first time ever sat quietly
and read a book and her tutors were amazed at her progress. Apparently she has had no relapse
into dyslexia.
Some effects of Zinc Deficiency
Zinc plays such important roles in the body. Here a few:
1. The effective elimination of heavy metals. This is what Igor Tabrizian M.D. has to say about
zinc as a defence against heavy metal absorption;
“Part of the defence against heavy metal absorption (esp. copper, mercury and cadmium) is
related to a protein called metallothionine. This protein is made up of mostly the amino acid
cysteine and contains seven zinc atoms. The sites of this metalloprotein suggest it’s
important as a filter for toxins, but also it plays a part in learning and socialisation. Defects
in this protein cause Autism, copper overload, dysbiosis (gut dysfunction), skin problems
and gastritis with wheat and dairy intolerance.” – The Visual Textbook of Nutritional
Medicine at page 108.
2. Immunity. Zinc protects the body against viral infections as it impacts viruses’ ability to
attach to cells. Zinc is secreted by every cavity and orifice in the body and acts like a
lubricant and antiseptic. Candida likes blood and will flourish if there is no zinc to kill it off or
if the zinc antagonists such as copper, mercury, aluminium and cadmium are in excess.
3. Digestion. Zinc is needed to make stomach acid so that proteins can be broken down.
1
Robert O. Becker, The Body Electric Chapters 4 and 13.
Zinc is a component of carboxypeptidase and aminopeptidase. These enzymes are required
to further breakdown proteins into peptides and amino acids in the small intestine. Grains
and dairy contain proteins which cannot be broken down unless there is sufficient zinc to
form these enzymes. If undigested proteins escape the gut then this could lead to
inflammation somewhere in the body such as the ears and cause unwanted pressure on the
immune system, liver and kidneys which display themselves as intolerances or chemical
sensitivities.
4. Brain function and language. Zinc is required to make the neurotransmitters serotonin,
melatonin, dopamine, noradrenaline and Gamma Amino Butyric Acid (GABA). Poor sleep
patterns and depression go with low zinc levels. GABA is necessary to quieten the brain.
Noradrenaline is required for alertness and lack of this neurotransmitter is linked with ADD.
Low GABA and noradrenaline are factors in ADHD. Zinc is also required to enable children to
learn abstract concepts, to learn nouns the basis of language. Multi-tasking requires us to
be able to engage in abstract thinking.
It may well be that the reason children are afflicted with dyslexia is a combination of two things;
A. Low zinc or low zinc to copper ratio at birth; and
B. Trauma associated with birth. This does not mean necessarily that the birth was traumatic
for mum but that the child experienced it that way. After all birth is our first great survival
event.
The combination of these two events might fix the brain in a particular pattern which affects the
parts of the brain associated with recognition of letters with a ‘loop’ in them. Dyslexics have most
difficulty with “b”, “d”, “g”, “p” and “q”. There can also be dyslexic states where letters are not
reversed but word recall and recognition are impaired. Again I would suggest the causes (other than
a lesion) are the same.