When It Comes To Medical Research, How Dare You?

Feeling Smarter and Smarter:
Discovering the Inner-Ear Origins and Treatment for
Dyslexia/LD, ADD/ADHD, and Phobias/Anxiety

Author: Harold N. Levinson, MD

Publisher: Springer Nature Switzerland, Cham, Switzerland, 2019

I agreed to review this book both because someone in my family had had troubles with balance issues and someone had been diagnosed with ADHD, as well as because of the significant occurrence of dyslexia, phobias and anxiety among today’s youth.

In initially scanning through the book, I realized it would be quite technical in part, but figured I would gain much from reading it.  I did.

First the reader learns about the traditional theories on the subject illnesses – how they came about and how they don’t really help.  In essence, and contrary to popular belief, Levinson shows how the traditional idea of “dyslexia = alexia” is not accurate. Dyslexia is different. And its symptoms are “an astonishing variety” and combined in nature.

Readers are introduced to Levinson’s CVS (cerebellar-vestibular system) theory, how he arrived at it, how and why it works, and testimonials from those he has helped. I cannot emphasize how important this may be to parents of children suffering from Dyslexia, ADHD, phobias, etc.  Levinson’s treatments, once a child is properly diagnosed through tested questions and answers, make an immediate positive improvement on how a child feels and how he/she sees the world. The author shows us how only the CVS theory of dyslexia can explain the various symptoms and (reading) mechanisms of patients with dyslexia.

But more importantly, for those of us, who do not have to live with these illnesses, Levinson’s account of battling forces in the medical research field is fascinating. He gives us a great insider’s look at how research is done as well as how it should be done in order not to miss the goal. And how the accounts of patients are a very intricate part in all that. Bottom line is that researchers (and practitioners) don’t listen enough to the very people they are trying to help. He points out the intentional and unintentional bias that is ever present in research and explains what the root of that may well be. In the words of the New York Times 2019 ‘person’ of the year, “How dare you?”

Dr. Levinson is a world-renowned psychiatrist and neurologist who has studied dyslexics for over half a century. He began his dyslexia research years ago within the New York City Board of Education. Formerly clinical associate professor of psychiatry at New York University Medical Center, he is now director of the Medical Dyslexic Treatment Center (also called the Levinson Medical Center for Learning Disabilities) in Great Neck, New York.

He writes with a very open style, often guessing the questions that we might have as we read and takes the trouble to answer them for us.  

The book is full of pictures of individuals treated, personal accounts (often on behalf of their young children), examples of children’s writing before and after treatment, and diagrams of the inner-ear mechanisms and how they work.

It includes chapters on many helpful therapies, the four key steps of certain diagnosis, and on smart drugs. It touches on the implications of his findings for those with Autism (ASD) as well as Autistic Trait Disorder or Pseudo-autism.

Highly recommended if you want to learn about these illnesses and what can actually be done today as well as have hope for the future treatment of such symptoms. For me the value of the book came in understanding how persistence and the ‘go it alone’ attitude of one scientist made such a difference to thousands – only to have the rest of the scientific world acknowledge it slowly and reluctantly many years later. After all, as Levinson points out, neither Freud nor Einstein received Nobel prizes for what they are primarily known for today.

If nothing else, I would urge all parents who have children diagnosed with any of the above illnesses and their associated symptoms to get their hands on Dr. Levinson’s book, and either ask their own doctors about it, and if necessary and/or possible, get to his Levinson Medical Center for Learning Disabilities.  

n  Ken B. Godevenos, President, Accord Resolutions Services Inc., Toronto, Ontario, December 30, 2019, www.accordconsulting.com

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Black Friday Came and Went, but Global Warming Syndrome Will Hang Around.

A new survey reported on by WND on November 28, 2019 indicates that about six in 10 Americans say they are at least "somewhat worried" about global warming and 23 percent say they are "very worried." Meanwhile, Washington-based psychiatrist Lise Van Susteren who has studied the mental health impacts of climate change for a decade and a half, says it is affecting us all.

And what kind of impact may that be? She lists ""conflict avoidance, fatalism, fear, helplessness and resignation."  The latest survey was conducted by a joint venture of Yale and George Mason universities. It found it is not just "only upper-middle-class, white, well-educated, latte-sipping liberals" that care about climate change. Meanwhile the "dismissives" are mostly "well-educated conservative white men." (I guess the researcher had people like me in mind when reporting that finding.)

What does this generic "climate change anxiety" look like for some?  Here are two examples reported by WND:

Kate Schapira, a senior lecturer at Brown University, operates a "climate anxiety" booth, just like Lucy's counselling booth in "Peanuts." She's so concerned that she and her husband are not having children. She wants her "sense of responsibility to the world to shrink down to the size of one person."  And she's not flying again.

Debbie Chang organized a group counselling session on dealing with climate anxiety on the National Mall in Washington in May, and she is going with a zero-waste policy. WND said, "She keeps chopsticks in her purse to avoid single-use plastic utensils, carries a handkerchief to substitute for paper napkins, and brings a steel container with her to restaurants for any leftovers she might want."

So, why all this anxiety? One lobbyist (Alicia Cannon) says it has to do with the fact that climate change is such a "large-scale issue and it's overwhelming and you feel that it's overwhelming because of helplessness."

Okay, here are my thoughts.  Don't ever say I'm not sharing.

First, climate-change is not a large-scale issue for many millions of people. In fact, millions around the world just worry about making it through the day, let alone worry about what may happen a decade from now.

Second, it's not over-whelming unless we want it to be. We are not breathing less because of climate change. No one or nothing is choking us.  Why then, on a practical level, are we so much more anxious now?

Third, if you have a feeling of helplessness, it is because you have bought into the lie that the world will end soon. People have been proposing this event at least for the last 2,000 years (that's 200 times longer than the current prediction says we have left).  Check out the details here.  You don't need to feel helpless on this account any more than you do believing that Santa Claus is real and you've been naughty all year.  [I don't venture to guess the correlation between being a climate change fearer and believing in Santa Claus.]

Fourth, isn't it amazing that an increase in climate change anxiety or syndrome goes hand in hand with an increase in Trump Derangement Syndrome victims.  I am convinced that if ever the Democrats are in power again, you will notice the climate change anxiety symptoms will die down a lot if not totally disappear. There will always be a few carriers of it around that have suffered beyond repair. But the point is that this is a political "anti-Trump" epedimic like so many other things these days.  Things like violence on airlines and restaurants and elsewhere because people happen to be wearing red hats with a certain four capital letters on them.

So, where do I stand on the issue of climate change?

I believe God created this earth in such a way that He could say, "it is good."  I believe we have not taken care of it as well as we should have.  I believe God is perfectly aware of the state of His creation and He cares much more for it than all the tree huggers in the world combined.

I believe I have a responsibility to do my part in keeping 'me' from harming the earth. But I also believe that God cares as much if not more about our lack of humaneness that we have shown towards our fellow men (as we kill them, get them addicted, sexually abuse them,  torture them, hate them, even cheat them or take advantage of them) and to babies in their mothers' wombs (as we abort them). And probably a lot more things that we have a direct "up or down" impact on.

Let's start working on these things and let Him worry more about the the weather -- after-all, that's His Natural realm.  Our purpose is to love all life -- especially where our actual actions would otherwise eliminate it outright.  Now get out there and take a deep breath.

-- Ken Godevenos, writing to do form Toronto, Ontario.

p.s. I would like to have your view on this.  Share a comment on the blog.  Please sign up to receive my next blog.  Just fill out the "subscribe by email" section on the right.   And feel free to share this blog with others.

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How Long Will "Independence Day" Survive? Author suggests these days are numbered.

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Biohistory: Decline and Fall of the West (book review)

I agreed to review this book because for sometime now I have sensed the demise of Western civilization but had no hard arguments as to how or why or when. I have now found them (or what I think may be them) in Jim Penman’s book, Biohistory: Decline and Fall of the West, published by Cambridge Scholars, Newcastle upon Tyne, U.K., 2015.

Penman, a Ph.D. [in History from Australia’s La Trobe University in 1983 and an Honorary Fellow and Guest Lecturer at RMIT University in Melbourne], is an Australian historian and social theorist. And in this book, he takes on the explanation of rises and falls observed in “civilization history” as well as predicting (with very little difficulty or hesitation) the collapse of modern Western civilization as we know it.  Penman is a very accomplished man but not necessarily in the academic circles where you would expect him to pop up now and again. This is a self-made man (he’s also CEO of Jim’s Group, Australia’s largest home services franchiser with over 3,400 franchisees in four countries, and growing at the rate of 200 per year) who has been using his spare moments (let alone his income) for the last 40 years to do research on his theory of Biohistory – the biological explanation for most of history, especially the causes of rises and falls of societies.

Penman’s theory is founded on the premise that a civilization fundamentally rises and falls based on the overall temperament of its populace. And temperament of a people is driven by many factors, not the least of which is the scarcity (or overabundance) of food.  Other factors are the amount of testosterone people have, the presence (or absence) of stress hormones, anxiety of mothers in one’s infancy, approaches to control and punishment at various pre-adulthood stages, and of course, the average age of puberty as well as the sexual activities or freedom of people.

His arguments as to how each one of these (and even more) factors impacts civilizations all make sense.  What is somewhat disconcerting (at least to a non-scientist) is the way he then explains anomalies by combining the various factors (high in one, low in another; early in one, later in another; etc.). No laity reader (at least not this one) can keep everything he says straight in order to be able to use the information provided as predictors in a different environment.

To his credit, Penman digs deep into both history and recent times for examples (both animal and human) from around the globe to give us solid proof that supports his theory.  He claims that what we need to consider is not genetics but rather epigenetics – the study of changes in organisms caused by modifications in gene expression rather than the alteration of the gene code itself.

Of particular interest also is his account of how religion impacts civilization positively to increase what he calls the C (civilization) factor – the epigenetics needed for a culture to rise.  But high C is not enough, he says.  Rising cultures need high V (aggression) to defeat their enemies and survive.  Considerable space is spent on how C and V rise and fall in a people, especially when combined with other factors such as timing, Lemming Cycles (you can discover these for yourself), war, recession and tyranny.  His parting theoretical shot at his formula is to stir in one more ingredient – the S (or stability) factor which has a lot to do with wanting to reproduce children to maintain the society, i.e. a civilization birth rate. It makes for fascinating reading.

With all the details out of the way, Penman reaches his three last chapters in the book. In one he deals first with “fundamentalists” (and no I don’t mean the Moral Majority type) and how they, all else being equal, have the greatest chance of survival.  He cites the original Israelite culture as found in the Old Testament and also fundamentalist (vs. liberal) Islam today as two excellent examples.  Then in the second last chapter he explains why the West is declining, and will continue to decline, with no easy way to stop it.  He even gives you a timeframe.  And you cannot argue with his arguments, especially if you buy any part of his theory.

It is his last chapter that threw me for a loop. Penman, very cautiously mind you, admitting that the only solution he has to offer as a means of stopping the current downward suicidal course of the West has its own downsides and will likely never easily be adopted, presents us with a picture of the future that makes Orwell’s 1984 seem more like a story about Cinderella. His solution – chemical supplements that bring about the desired epigenetics to help the rise and sustaining of a civilization.

Readers like me who object to that type of solution, and all that it conjures in ones mind, can well skip the book’s last chapter and still gain much to explain human behavior. I recommend it.

    -- Ken B. Godevenos, http://www.accordconsulting.com, Murrells Inlet, S.C. 15/07/04  

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