Overdoses from opioid abuse has hit an all-time high. In 2014, more than 47,000 people died from a drug overdose. Heroin use jumped 63% in an 11 year span. Prescription drugs like Vicodin and Percocet cause 17,000 deaths per year. Why are so many Americans turning to drugs and why are they in so much pain? On this episode of The Health and Wellness Show we spoke about the hidden hands involved in the rise of drug use and abuse in the US and why pain management is such big business. We also spoke about chronic pain and it's causes, traditional and not-so traditional methods of treatment as well as drug-free alternatives.

Running Time: 01:31:25

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Here's the transcript of the show:

Things have not been going well for the US government's (and friends') 5-year-long attempt to use proxy terror forces to overthrow the Assad government. The first death-knell came last September when the Russian air force entered the fray to great effect (and applause from all sensible people). The shoot-down of the Russia bomber in November by some NATO fifth-columnist was the Empire's response to the Russian intervention and was designed to destroy Turkish-Russian relations, making Russia's air war against Washington's terrorists more difficult. But Erdogan and Co. were disinclined to 'take one for the team' in that way (especially since Turkey was never really allowed to be part of the team) and eventually conceded to Russian demands for a public apology over the shoot-down and restitution to the families.

Faced with such an insolent and uncooperative reality, the State Department pulled out what they thought was their trump card: an old-fashioned coup d'etat in Turkey in mid-July. But that back-fired in a spectacular way, and now looks set to achieve exactly the opposite of what the Empire wanted: hard-wired (or piped) ties between not just Russia and Turkey, but Iran and China too.

Erdogan's recent meeting with Putin in St Petersburg means the US-led 5-year-long effort to oust President Assad in Syria is all but over. Western leaders will, however, be the last to realize this. This week on Behind the Headlines we're discussing the bloody siege of Aleppo, the last major Syrian city where Western-backed terrorists are holding out.

Elsewhere on the West-East battlefront this week, Kiev forces were prevented from committing terror attacks in Crimea, 11 coordinated bombings at tourist sites in Thailand left 4 dead and dozens injured, and US-UK efforts to 'stir the pot' in the South China Sea has cast a spotlight on the anti-drugs policies of new Philippines president Rodrigo Duterte.

Extreme weather events this week saw yet another 'one-in-1,000-year flooding event', this time in Louisiana; a devastating flash-flood hitting Skopje, Macedonia; and a month's worth of rainfall in 24 hours swamping parts of Mexico.

All this and more coming up later today on Behind the Headlines - from 12 noon US Eastern, 6pm Central European.

Running Time: 02:01:14

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As the Syrian Arab Army and Syrian government make more significant advances in restoring security to northern Syria's Aleppo and its population, war-propagandizing human rights groups posing as neutral, and Western media (and Gulf counterparts like Al Jazeera) churn out recycled and debunked accusations anew.

According to these compromised US government and Soros-funded NGOs and much of the corporate media, there is only one "last" pediatrician and a scarce number of doctors left in Aleppo. They are, of course, referring solely to the terrorist-occupied regions of Aleppo (eastern and some northern quarters) and even then ignore the reality that the Syrian government continues to pay the salaries of doctors in terrorist-occupied areas, including eastern Aleppo.

As the clock ticks down to the US presidential election in November, it also ticks down on an opportunity to end the five-year war in Syria which has cost over 300,000 lives and displaced half of Syria's population. As the Syrian Army and its allies completed the encirclement of Aleppo, opening up humanitarian corridors in partnership with Russia to afford civilians and "rebels" — provided they laid down their arms — the opportunity to leave safely and be provided with humanitarian assistance, we could be forgiven for believing we can see the end of this abhorrent war on the horizon. However in recent days, the Jaysh al-Fateh coalition, heavily featuring the rebranded and very well equipped Jabhat Fateh al-Sham, led counter attacks which breached the siege lines, although they have failed to as yet open up secure routes for new supplies, fighters and weapons, as well as to launch further counter attacks.

Meanwhile, the polls fluctuate on who is the favourite between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to become the next US president, and we can't yet confidently predict who will be the Commander in Chief presiding over the Syrian conflict and therefore what policy changes may occur. The wild fluctuations see Clinton ahead by a massive 15 points, 48 to 33 percent, according to a McClatchy-Marist poll, yet less than 48 hours later a Reuters/Ipsos opinion poll has Clinton holding a narrow 42-39 percent lead. Clinton's infatuation with war causes huge consternation, not least over what she may bring to the table on the war in Syria.

One thing is clear: Clinton is the favourite, and we should all prepare for what awaits us with Clinton as the leader of the "free world." Clinton has a readymade band of neocon war hawks waiting in the wings, not hard to find in a US political establishment dominated by neocons with a thirst for war and conquest. This cabal jockeying for position in her prospective administration does not bode well for the Syrian conflict, or for relations with Russia. Let's examine some of the candidates and their boastful record of war mongering and Russophobia.

Have you ever wondered if our modern methods of oral hygiene and dental care are causing us more harm than good? Despite all the advancements in dental technology our collective teeth are actually worse off than they were before the agricultural revolution. In this Health and Wellness Show we discuss the topics of flossing, mercury amalgams, fluoride, root canals and more. We also share natural means and DIY methods to obtain a healthy mouth and keep your grill in tip-top shape.

Running Time: 01:18:53

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Here's the transcript of the show:

July 2016 was a crazy month in more ways than one. A global spike in terror attacks and people going postal was apparently mirrored by Mother Nature. Among the extreme weather events and trends in environmental upheaval last month, we observed:

• A destructive tornado outbreak in South Africa (where it's winter-time)
• Hail the size of golf-balls falling in - of all places - Colombia and Brazil
• Intense electrical storms everywhere, with lightning strikes continuing to pick people off in alarming numbers
• Deluges of rain washing away cars and people everywhere from Mexico City to Berlin to Maryland
• Devastating flooding across swathes of China, India and Nepal
• Multiple destructive waterspouts coming ashore in Cuba
• Animals, both wild and captive, attacking and killing people
• An enormous meteor fragmenting from horizon to horizon over the US Southwest

These were just some of the signs in July 2016:

In 1975, John Keel published his strange and classic Mothman Prophecies about the even stranger events he experienced and investigated in 1966-67 in Point Pleasant, West Virginia. The book, and the articles he wrote nearly 10 years before, were decades ahead of their time, identifying and taking seriously countless topics that most people ignored or wrote off as fantasy, but which are now being taken seriously by many in the field of ufology. Today, we took a broad look at the book and the phenomena Keel described.

We also discussed the latest iteration of the X-Files TV show (see SOTT editor Ennio Adams' series on the show starting here): what it gets right, and what it gets wrong, and why it matters. In the last half hour we gave brief updates on the situations in Syria and Ukraine, as well as the U.S. presidential election. Tune in!

Running Time: 02:01:00

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Another week, another string of police crimes being justified. This incident is truly disturbing, what was a simple instance of parents disciplining their daughter resulted in the death of the father who had committed no crime.

The incident, which was caught on video, began when Mrs. Nair Rodriguez got into an altercation with her 19-year-old daughter outside the Moore Warren Theatre in the early hours of February 15 and slapped her. A bystander who witnessed the incident reported the event to police. The mother-daughter disagreement had upset Mrs. Rodriguez so much that she had bolted for the family car. Her husband, Luis followed her to calm her down when he was intercepted by five police who arrived on the scene. However instead of confronting Nair, five cops took down her innocent husband Luis Rodriguez, beating, pepper spraying and pinning him on the road.

Important to note, this anonymous bystander, who merely thought they were doing the right thing, bears some responsibility for the death of this innocent man. We should all consider that the next time we ponder calling the cops, for any reason.

Police say their actions were protocol, though three have been suspended with pay while the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation continues to investigate.

Not only was everything done 'according to protocol' but Luis' murderers get a paid vacation during the investigation, which can be anywhere from months to years when compared with historically similar accounts.

On this episode of The Health and Wellness Show we did a bit of dot connecting. There have been a lot of interesting stories in the news as of late and we did our best to cover them. In gut news we covered the power of mother's milk, how gut flora can influence food cravings and the rapidly shrinking population of America. Pharmaceutical and vaccine madness continues. Statins, birth control pills and the HPV vaccine continue their reign of destruction. There have been big stories on corruption at the CDC and FDA (what else is new?). And in political health news -- what will a Killary Clinton presidency mean for your medical sovereignty?

Running Time: 01:31:05

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