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How ten-year-old Jessica soared to the top of the class
From the Daily Mail Thursday December 28 2000
A ten-year-old dyslexic girl has rocketed to the top of her class thanks to a space-age treatment. Jessica Foulston started taking travel pills after experts discovered links between dyslexia and the temporary learning difficulties astronauts suffer in space. Spacemen overcome the problem by taking motion sickness pills, and a New York psychiatrist believes the same remedy helps dyslexics.
Before starting his treatment, Jessica was reading books for five-year-olds - now she can read novels aimed at her own range. She has also become one of the best maths pupils in her class at St Mary's and St Ann's School, Abbots Bromley, Staffordshire, instead of being bottom.
She said: 'I used to be scared that I couldn't read books for my age group. Now I can read books like Harry Potter. I don't get headaches or feel tired all the time. I really like maths. I'm on the same level as everyone else now and find it much easier.'
Jessica, from Hixon, Staffordshire, takes two travel tablets in the morning and afternoon, combined with 12 vitamin supplements to aid her concentration. Jessica's parents, Maria and Tony, 56, found out about Dr Harold Levinson's work from his website 'www.dyslexiaonline.com' and then booked her an appointment at one of his clinics in Leamington Spa, Warwickshire.
The treatment has cost £600 so far, with £40 a month for the tablets which are ordered from America. Mrs Foulston, 44, said: 'It's like bringing a new child home from school every day.
'Before we saw Dr Levinson, Jessica would find school work exhausting as she would have to try two to three times harder than the average pupil. Her teachers would say she didn't concentrate enough, and that her work didn't often meet the standards of her classmates.
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'Now she comes home from school with a smile on her face and is happy to do her homework.'
Jessica found her symptoms decrease after just two months of the treatment. According to Dr Levinson, patients have reported a permanent improvements in their conditions and there are currently no reports of any short or long term side-effects.
Previous research into dyslexia suggested the condition was caused by a defect in the language-processing part of the brain. But Dr Levinson has spent the last thirty years working on his theory that the inner ear and cerebellum - which control balance and co-ordination - are linked to the learning difficulty.
He has found the American-made pills, which counteract the effect of motion sickness in the brain, had a positive effect on dyslexics. He said: 'Researchers discovered that astronauts in space suffered a temporary form of dyslexia, such as reading words upside down and backwards, due to the weight-lessness on their inner ear and cerebellum.
'I began to use the same motion sickness pills astronauts were given to treat the problems dyslexics have with movement, concentration levels, balance and short-term memory.
'The NHS is slowly recognising this treatment and I think in about two years the tablets will be available from your GP. I've been telling people about this treatment for thirty years but only now, following new research into dyslexia, are people actually listening.'
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