OPENING OUR MINDS TO OUR BRAINS' POTENTIAL

A mother struggles to find a cure for her daughter’s unusual seizures—and the whole family benefits—in a debut memoir.

In third grade, Sette’s only daughter began to slip backward in her development, regressing in reading and communicating and losing the ability to buckle her seat belt. Diagnosed with a rare form of epilepsy known as electro-status epilepticus sleep syndrome, or Landau-Kleffner syndrome, Nicolette had nighttime seizures that impaired her sleep, and the available medications didn’t work well for her. In this book, Sette describes her panicked odyssey into alternative treatments for her daughter, which over time helped her understand how the brain and the rest of the body work together. Nicolette finally began to improve when doctors at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia allowed her to enroll in its ketogenic diet program. And after seeing the improvement in her daughter, Sette began to make healthy changes in her life, too, looking into neurofeedback, meditation, mindfulness, mantras, brain training games, and more. As a result, she and her daughter and sons, Zachary and Anthony, learned enduring lessons about the connections between the brain and body—involving diet, exercise, sleep, self-knowledge, and self-expression—that Sette describes in this book. Though Nicolette’s health problems are often the focus of the story, the author and her sons also stepped outside their comfort zones, as Zachary began a demanding pre-med program at Pennsylvania State University, Anthony had “terrible headaches” after a concussion, and both sons had to learn to help their sister. Sette’s suggestions are largely practical—though often New Age–y—and focused on basics such as healthy eating and finding a balance in life that allows for creativity, play, and humor. Along the way, the author found inspiration in sources ranging from Oprah Winfrey to Albert Einstein and from Rhonda Byrne’s self-help book The Secret (2006) to Norwegian physiology professor Ulrik Wisløff. But she distills what she learned into a simple message for anyone hoping to feel physically and mentally better: “To sum up, take inventory and start with small overall steps toward health; that will make it easier.”

A mother and her children gain wisdom from a family health crisis.