side effects may include constipation
hallucinations paralysis suicidal
thoughts loss of eyesight abnormal heart
rhythms and life-threatening allergic
reactions how many times have you gone
to a doctor and been prescribed a
medicine that fails to work or has side
effects worse than the actual problem
you were trying to solve in the United
States alone in the year 2017 the
prescription drug expenditure was about
360 point 1 billion dollars and this
number is increasing by tens of billions
of dollars every year but imagine if for
neurological disorders
instead of being prescribed drugs that
were foreign and possibly detrimental to
your body your doctor prescribed you a
drug whose side effects with smiles
happiness and the need to get up and
dance what if your doctor prescribes you
a drug whose name was music music has
been used to treat neurological
conditions such as Parkinson’s
depression OCD and autism
I’m here today to testify for the
therapeutic power of music and its
ability to heal and waste prescription
drugs cannot I’d like you to imagine
what it would feel like if for two whole
minutes your left arm was continuously
flapping your eyes were constantly
rolling your jaw was clenching so hard
that it felt like your teeth were about
to break and every ten seconds you were
forced to let out a loud high-pitched
screech this is how I lived at the young
age of six seven days a week every
waking moment and these were only some
of my symptoms but it wasn’t always like
this
before the symptoms surfaced I lived a
life very similar to other kids my age I
went to school I played with my friends
and going to the movie theaters and
dinners was never a problem for me
these involuntary movements and sounds
were very minor and had no real impact
on my life then one day my mom came into
my room to wake
preschool like she always did except
that morning I woke up a different
person I had zero control over my own
body
I was yanking my knock from side to side
screaming and kicking my legs violently
and starting from that day I could no
longer go to school or play with my
friends and my family could no longer go
to our favorite Chinese restaurant for a
nice meal because I couldn’t stay quiet
or just sit in my chair and suddenly
everything I wanted to do or loved to do
was made impossible my life had
drastically changed overnight in search
for a cure we flew to New York to meet
with the best pediatric
neuropsychologist my parents could find
I’ll never forget that doctor’s office
when I answered I remember feeling
excited and hopeful confident that I was
this close to the answer to all of my
problems and I knew that soon I would
have a remedy and be able to return back
to school and everything would be the
way it was so you can imagine how
heartbreaking lis devastating it was
when the doctors diagnosed me with
Tourette syndrome and then told me that
there was no cure for this terrible
thing that had hijacked my body and
taken over my life I can tell you that
walking out of that office I was crushed
I finally knew what was wrong and I was
given an answer but I had no solution at
this young age I had been sentenced to a
life living in a body I had virtually no
control over the best way to really
describe Tourette syndrome is something
I’m sure you’re all very familiar with
the hiccups you can try to stop yourself
from the act but eventually there’s
going to be a loud and explosive hiccup
and people can ask you to stop but there
is just nothing you can do about it
until the sensation passes and the
hiccups have taken their course that’s
essentially what Tourette’s syndrome is
a series of involuntary motor and verbal
tics as you might expect I started to
hate my life I mean really hates I hated
myself I hated my syndrome and I hated
the doctors for not having answers all
they could do was try and suppress the
symptoms but every single drug they
prescribed me had side effects worse
than the actual disorder one drug put me
in a wheelchair because my legs
gotten so numb that I couldn’t move them
another one caused me to hallucinate I
would see green people running after me
threatening to boil me in a pot and
drink me a soup and when I say it out
loud now it sounds ridiculous but the
six year old me it was real and it was
scary
we tried drug after drug to find
something that would bring me some sort
of relief but every single attempt just
ended up making things worse I neither
had to be a cure and I believed that it
was something deep inside of me that led
to my healing
I discovered a drug that could radically
change my life with no negative side
effects this drug goes by the name of
music I always had a great appreciation
for music I love to sing write songs
about enchanted forest and dance to the
tunes from the latest Bollywood movies I
equally loved riding my bike playing
with my dolls and reading books
there was nothing in me that prioritized
music but as the hopelessness and the
depression within me grew and as my days
got darker we searched for anything that
would provide me with a moment of
serenity anything that could get me
through the day
I often lay on my bedroom floor after an
attack of ticks feeling exhausted
hurting and in despair my equally
desperate mother would attempt to soothe
me and herself by playing some music she
would play peaceful soothing music and
we lie together on the floor and allow
the beats of the drums to uplift us and
as the rhythms and the tunes unfolded
our Spurs would rise our moods would be
lighter and we would be rejuvenated very
soon and rather unknowingly I became an
addict of this newfound drug when I feel
myself slipping into my bouts of sadness
and self-pity I play all kinds of music
to change my mood Mozart sharpens healer
so if justin beiber anything and after a
long day of school and the continuous
suppression of my tics I would rush home
to my piano knowing that each one of
those 88 keys would set me free I
believe that music helped me recover
from my dark place eventually I became
curious about how much better I was
doing and the role that music played in
it so I set out to search and I
found that my claims of music as
medicine did not stand alone a highly
successful us congresswoman Gabby
Giffords was shot in the head and lost
her ability to speak her doctors brought
in music therapists to work with her
because the ability to sing and the
ability to speak lay in two separate
parts of the brain her therapist
encouraged her to sing her thoughts
since she was incapable of speaking them
through this technique the congresswoman
was finally able to regain her speech
music heald’s Gabby Giffords I’m sure
many of you here have heard of Demi
Lovato for those of you who don’t know
her she’s an international superstar who
suffered from extreme depression and an
eating disorder bulimia in an interview
with Spotify Demi Lovato affirmed that
music saved her life she said it gave me
a reason to live when I was being
bullied and when I was dealing with
serious depression it gave me something
to relate to it gave me hope and it gave
me Drive and motivation to prezerv ear
and achieve my dreams
music heald’s Demi Lovato and would you
believe that ed Sheeran one of the most
successful singer songwriters today a
four-time Grammy Award winner and a
record-breaking artist spent his
childhood suffering from a stutter that
prevented him from expressing himself
and communicating in a speech he gave at
the American stuttering Institute gala
in 2015 ed Sheeran revealed that the
secret securing his stutter came from
his love for rap music he would get
inspired by his favorite rap artists
copy their flow and he wouldn’t stutter
music heald’s ed Sheeran I still have
Tourette’s syndrome
I deal with it every day every hour it’s
my constant companion not a single day
goes by where I don’t have involuntary
motor and verbal tics but the most
amazing thing is that when I sing play
an instrument or even just listen to
music I don’t take I’ve been on stage
numerous times in highly stressful
situations with thousands of people
watching me and while I do take before
my performance once the music starts the
tics take a backseat so why and how does
music had this incredible effect on
people
well scientists have discovered that
music causes our brains to release a
natural pain killer known as oxytocin
and a feel-good chemical dopamine
dopamine is essential for a healthy
nervous system and strongly impacts our
emotional health music can affect our
heart rate our breathing and pulse rate
as it lowers cortisol levels music can
also reduce anxiety and lift our mood
music stimulates more areas of the brain
than just about any other human activity
what it does for us goes beyond
conventional medicine it is the ribbon
that connects our minds and bodies to
work together in unity to eventually
heal us the more I sang the more I
played the more I swayed the happier
healthier and more peaceful I became I
believe music helped me recover from my
dark place and as my journey continues
I’ve made it my personal mission to
spread this message music can heal you
you don’t have to be a professional
singer shower singing is just as
powerful you don’t have to know how to
play an instrument clap your hands stomp
your feet allow your beating heart to
keep pace with the music you really
don’t have to do anything other than to
just listen and allow the music to work
it’s magic those days that I lay on my
bedroom floor hopeless and at a loss as
my body ached and my vision of the
future seemed disheartening I can’t bear
to imagine what would have happened if
my mom had it had played those songs
what if I never took the time to drown
myself in the beats and the rhythms and
feel the vibration of the energy heal my
every cell what if I never strum my
guitar I sang my feelings at the top of
my lungs what if I never found music ten
years ago my body was so out of control
and my verbal tics were so loud that
visiting a local library was not even an
option but last summer I performed my
own original music for an audience of
10,000 people and as I sang and
performed for 27 minutes I was in
completely spoke control so I may have
written my own music and compose my own
lyrics but in reality it was the music
that composed me
in our lifetimes we will all know
someone with a neurological disorder if
it’s not a family member it could be a
friend or a co-worker please help me
spread this message music is the
number-one prescription that’s uplifting
lives and healing us from with it thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music] [Applause]
hallucinations paralysis suicidal
thoughts loss of eyesight abnormal heart
rhythms and life-threatening allergic
reactions how many times have you gone
to a doctor and been prescribed a
medicine that fails to work or has side
effects worse than the actual problem
you were trying to solve in the United
States alone in the year 2017 the
prescription drug expenditure was about
360 point 1 billion dollars and this
number is increasing by tens of billions
of dollars every year but imagine if for
neurological disorders
instead of being prescribed drugs that
were foreign and possibly detrimental to
your body your doctor prescribed you a
drug whose side effects with smiles
happiness and the need to get up and
dance what if your doctor prescribes you
a drug whose name was music music has
been used to treat neurological
conditions such as Parkinson’s
depression OCD and autism
I’m here today to testify for the
therapeutic power of music and its
ability to heal and waste prescription
drugs cannot I’d like you to imagine
what it would feel like if for two whole
minutes your left arm was continuously
flapping your eyes were constantly
rolling your jaw was clenching so hard
that it felt like your teeth were about
to break and every ten seconds you were
forced to let out a loud high-pitched
screech this is how I lived at the young
age of six seven days a week every
waking moment and these were only some
of my symptoms but it wasn’t always like
this
before the symptoms surfaced I lived a
life very similar to other kids my age I
went to school I played with my friends
and going to the movie theaters and
dinners was never a problem for me
these involuntary movements and sounds
were very minor and had no real impact
on my life then one day my mom came into
my room to wake
preschool like she always did except
that morning I woke up a different
person I had zero control over my own
body
I was yanking my knock from side to side
screaming and kicking my legs violently
and starting from that day I could no
longer go to school or play with my
friends and my family could no longer go
to our favorite Chinese restaurant for a
nice meal because I couldn’t stay quiet
or just sit in my chair and suddenly
everything I wanted to do or loved to do
was made impossible my life had
drastically changed overnight in search
for a cure we flew to New York to meet
with the best pediatric
neuropsychologist my parents could find
I’ll never forget that doctor’s office
when I answered I remember feeling
excited and hopeful confident that I was
this close to the answer to all of my
problems and I knew that soon I would
have a remedy and be able to return back
to school and everything would be the
way it was so you can imagine how
heartbreaking lis devastating it was
when the doctors diagnosed me with
Tourette syndrome and then told me that
there was no cure for this terrible
thing that had hijacked my body and
taken over my life I can tell you that
walking out of that office I was crushed
I finally knew what was wrong and I was
given an answer but I had no solution at
this young age I had been sentenced to a
life living in a body I had virtually no
control over the best way to really
describe Tourette syndrome is something
I’m sure you’re all very familiar with
the hiccups you can try to stop yourself
from the act but eventually there’s
going to be a loud and explosive hiccup
and people can ask you to stop but there
is just nothing you can do about it
until the sensation passes and the
hiccups have taken their course that’s
essentially what Tourette’s syndrome is
a series of involuntary motor and verbal
tics as you might expect I started to
hate my life I mean really hates I hated
myself I hated my syndrome and I hated
the doctors for not having answers all
they could do was try and suppress the
symptoms but every single drug they
prescribed me had side effects worse
than the actual disorder one drug put me
in a wheelchair because my legs
gotten so numb that I couldn’t move them
another one caused me to hallucinate I
would see green people running after me
threatening to boil me in a pot and
drink me a soup and when I say it out
loud now it sounds ridiculous but the
six year old me it was real and it was
scary
we tried drug after drug to find
something that would bring me some sort
of relief but every single attempt just
ended up making things worse I neither
had to be a cure and I believed that it
was something deep inside of me that led
to my healing
I discovered a drug that could radically
change my life with no negative side
effects this drug goes by the name of
music I always had a great appreciation
for music I love to sing write songs
about enchanted forest and dance to the
tunes from the latest Bollywood movies I
equally loved riding my bike playing
with my dolls and reading books
there was nothing in me that prioritized
music but as the hopelessness and the
depression within me grew and as my days
got darker we searched for anything that
would provide me with a moment of
serenity anything that could get me
through the day
I often lay on my bedroom floor after an
attack of ticks feeling exhausted
hurting and in despair my equally
desperate mother would attempt to soothe
me and herself by playing some music she
would play peaceful soothing music and
we lie together on the floor and allow
the beats of the drums to uplift us and
as the rhythms and the tunes unfolded
our Spurs would rise our moods would be
lighter and we would be rejuvenated very
soon and rather unknowingly I became an
addict of this newfound drug when I feel
myself slipping into my bouts of sadness
and self-pity I play all kinds of music
to change my mood Mozart sharpens healer
so if justin beiber anything and after a
long day of school and the continuous
suppression of my tics I would rush home
to my piano knowing that each one of
those 88 keys would set me free I
believe that music helped me recover
from my dark place eventually I became
curious about how much better I was
doing and the role that music played in
it so I set out to search and I
found that my claims of music as
medicine did not stand alone a highly
successful us congresswoman Gabby
Giffords was shot in the head and lost
her ability to speak her doctors brought
in music therapists to work with her
because the ability to sing and the
ability to speak lay in two separate
parts of the brain her therapist
encouraged her to sing her thoughts
since she was incapable of speaking them
through this technique the congresswoman
was finally able to regain her speech
music heald’s Gabby Giffords I’m sure
many of you here have heard of Demi
Lovato for those of you who don’t know
her she’s an international superstar who
suffered from extreme depression and an
eating disorder bulimia in an interview
with Spotify Demi Lovato affirmed that
music saved her life she said it gave me
a reason to live when I was being
bullied and when I was dealing with
serious depression it gave me something
to relate to it gave me hope and it gave
me Drive and motivation to prezerv ear
and achieve my dreams
music heald’s Demi Lovato and would you
believe that ed Sheeran one of the most
successful singer songwriters today a
four-time Grammy Award winner and a
record-breaking artist spent his
childhood suffering from a stutter that
prevented him from expressing himself
and communicating in a speech he gave at
the American stuttering Institute gala
in 2015 ed Sheeran revealed that the
secret securing his stutter came from
his love for rap music he would get
inspired by his favorite rap artists
copy their flow and he wouldn’t stutter
music heald’s ed Sheeran I still have
Tourette’s syndrome
I deal with it every day every hour it’s
my constant companion not a single day
goes by where I don’t have involuntary
motor and verbal tics but the most
amazing thing is that when I sing play
an instrument or even just listen to
music I don’t take I’ve been on stage
numerous times in highly stressful
situations with thousands of people
watching me and while I do take before
my performance once the music starts the
tics take a backseat so why and how does
music had this incredible effect on
people
well scientists have discovered that
music causes our brains to release a
natural pain killer known as oxytocin
and a feel-good chemical dopamine
dopamine is essential for a healthy
nervous system and strongly impacts our
emotional health music can affect our
heart rate our breathing and pulse rate
as it lowers cortisol levels music can
also reduce anxiety and lift our mood
music stimulates more areas of the brain
than just about any other human activity
what it does for us goes beyond
conventional medicine it is the ribbon
that connects our minds and bodies to
work together in unity to eventually
heal us the more I sang the more I
played the more I swayed the happier
healthier and more peaceful I became I
believe music helped me recover from my
dark place and as my journey continues
I’ve made it my personal mission to
spread this message music can heal you
you don’t have to be a professional
singer shower singing is just as
powerful you don’t have to know how to
play an instrument clap your hands stomp
your feet allow your beating heart to
keep pace with the music you really
don’t have to do anything other than to
just listen and allow the music to work
it’s magic those days that I lay on my
bedroom floor hopeless and at a loss as
my body ached and my vision of the
future seemed disheartening I can’t bear
to imagine what would have happened if
my mom had it had played those songs
what if I never took the time to drown
myself in the beats and the rhythms and
feel the vibration of the energy heal my
every cell what if I never strum my
guitar I sang my feelings at the top of
my lungs what if I never found music ten
years ago my body was so out of control
and my verbal tics were so loud that
visiting a local library was not even an
option but last summer I performed my
own original music for an audience of
10,000 people and as I sang and
performed for 27 minutes I was in
completely spoke control so I may have
written my own music and compose my own
lyrics but in reality it was the music
that composed me
in our lifetimes we will all know
someone with a neurological disorder if
it’s not a family member it could be a
friend or a co-worker please help me
spread this message music is the
number-one prescription that’s uplifting
lives and healing us from with it thank
you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Applause]
you
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music]
[Applause]
[Music]
[Music] [Applause]
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