Guts, Enzymes, Serotonin, And Health — And a note about DNA

How Endotoxins and Estrogen Can Wreck Your Health

Analysis by Dr. Joseph MercolaFact Checked
  • Endotoxin and mycotoxins play an important role in many chronic degenerative diseases
  • Endotoxin, also known as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), is produced by gram-negative bacteria in your gut. When complex carbs aren’t digested in your stomach, they travel down to the intestine where they feed these bacteria, and as the bacteria grow, multiply and die, the bacteria release LPS, which can result in leaky gut, allergic reactions, organ dysfunction and even sepsis
  • Endotoxin also catalyzes metabolic reactions that convert tryptophan in your gut to serotonin. You do not want high levels of serotonin because it’s antimetabolic. It suppresses your body’s ability to create energy in the electron transport chain, so you become tired and fatigued, your metabolic rate slows and you gain weight
  • Estrogen excess can produce symptoms that are identical to endotoxin toxicity, and an estimated 30% of endotoxin cases are misdiagnosed, and are related to excess estrogen
  • Estrogen is one of our biggest toxic threats today, as both men and women are exposed to high amounts of estrogenic compounds in their diet and environment. Most already have too much estrogen, which is a major driver of certain cancers

Today’s interview features Kashif Khan, founder and CEO of The DNA Company, which analyzes your DNA and keeps your data private, unlike 23andMe and other companies that sell your genetic data to third parties like drug companies.

Our discussion here is not about DNA analysis, however, but rather endotoxin and mycotoxin, which can play an important role in many chronic degenerative diseases, and estrogen excess, which can produce symptoms identical to endotoxin. Khan is quite knowledgeable in this area.

“The biggest area where we’re seeing a flood of people coming in, is in the female health world,” Khan says. “Not that this is an answer for everybody, but what we’re seeing is that all these women are concerned about how they feel and it’s been labeled as an endotoxin problem.

We’re diving in and seeing that about 30% of them are misdiagnosed. It’s actually an estrogen problem. They have the same symptoms, same complaints, same everything. We know that endotoxins are a concern, and so that concern is being taught in functional medicine … Mycotoxins are also being misdiagnosed.

So, a big area we end up supporting and helping is actually looking at the hormone pathway and seeing what toxic hormones are people making. This is one piece of the conversation, it’s one slice, but it’s a big slice where the most help is needed …

Whether it’s men producing DHT that’s causing inflammation, or women producing 4-hydroxy estrogen or 16-hydroxy estrogen as this constant trickle of inflammation, representing the same symptoms, same everything, they’re just not getting help. They’re not getting fixed because that’s what’s actually driving the symptoms. And we keep seeing this over and over again.”

What Are Endotoxin and Mycotoxin?

Endotoxin, also known as lipopolysaccharide (LPS), is produced by gram-negative bacteria in your gut. When complex carbs aren’t digested in your stomach, they travel down to the intestine where they feed these bacteria, and as the bacteria grow, multiply and die, the bacteria release LPS, which can result in leaky gut, allergic reactions, organ dysfunction and even sepsis.

Endotoxin also catalyzes a series of metabolic reactions that convert tryptophan in your gut to serotonin. Most people think serotonin is good, but mostly, especially higher levels, it is not good for your health. You do not want high levels of serotonin because it’s an antimetabolite.

This means it suppresses your body’s ability to create energy in your mitochondria in the electron transport chain, so you become tired and fatigued, your metabolic rate slows and you gain weight.

While endotoxin typically is related to gram-negative bacteria, mycotoxin is generated by things like fungi and yeast, such as candida. Mycotoxin such as mold can also have a volatile organic compounds (VOCs) aspect to it. This is the smell or odor, which can make you sick all by itself.

Toxic Reservoirs Must Be Addressed

As explained by Khan, when it comes to endotoxin and mycotoxin, it’s important to realize that you likely have a reservoir of toxin-producing bacteria in your system that will continue causing problems for as long as you keep feeding them. What’s more, within the metabolic pathway of endotoxin, a gene expression change occurs that is triggered by nutrition or environment.

“That triggers production of enzymes and proteins like amylase and cellulase to then convert the fuel that they’re consuming into the building blocks of the ensuing toxins, like mycotoxins, for example,” Khan explains.

“So, you have this internal combustion engine of making more and more, and the genes are being triggered in the actual toxin to make more of the outcome of this inflammatory toxin. And so, it’s happening on the inside too. That’s what people don’t get.

You’re binding and clearing, but if you’re not dealing with innate fungal overgrowth or toxin overload, you’re still making more of it. We often look at the gut as the source of what you need to work on, but it’s not just about what’s coming in. It’s also what you make on the inside. People need to think about that.”

How to Address Endotoxin and Mycotoxin

To address this vicious cycle, you need to heal and seal your gut. Beneficial bacteria, such as bifidobacteria and lactobacillus, and beneficial yeast like Saccharomyces boulardii can help repopulate your gut with beneficial microbes.

Saccharomyces boulardii is frequently prescribed by knowledgeable physicians to individuals who need to take antibiotics, because the saccharomyces are not killed by antibiotics. Intermittent use of binders such as activated charcoal, cholestyramine (a prescription drug), clays and chlorella can also be helpful to clear out some of the endotoxin.

In severe cases, you may even need to use antibiotics to sterilize your gut, although I don’t typically recommend this. Obviously, you also need to reduce the fuel source, so avoid complex carbs and resistant starches.

The strategies for mycotoxin are similar. However, as noted by Khan, most of the mycotoxin you’re exposed to comes from your food, and most of the mycotoxin in food is produced during shipping and storage. Generally, about 10% of the food supply is contaminated at the source, but once it’s reached its destination, the contamination level is 25%. So, to avoid mycotoxin, eating locally-grown food is part of the solution.

Humic and Fulvic Acids Help Clear Intracellular Toxins

If binders and beneficial bacteria and/or yeast don’t do the trick, you may have leaky gut. In that case, your gut also needs to be healed. Signs of leaky gut include constipation or diarrhea, and the route of elimination needs to be fixed before you can start to really move toxins out.

“One really cool thing we’re finding is there’s sometimes solutions that aren’t labeled for a particular problem, but they work. Humic and fulvic minerals are doing a really good job of drawing [out] intracellular [toxins], and healing the cellular membrane, because fulvic minerals have this unique attribute where they have this charge to be able to bring nutrients into the cell.

Once they do that, they flip their charge to draw toxins out. They bring them back out with them. And so, we’re finding people who are taking good minerals are healing much faster, if they’re taking the right stuff, because there’s this double whammy of healing the gut, taking out what’s in the blood, but also intracellular [and] cell membrane-wise.”

You may also need liver and bile support to ensure efficient detox. One thing to remember is that complete healing can take a long time. “It can take two years,” Khan says. “If you’re not just masking a symptom to feel better, it’s going to take time. It’s not a question of weeks.”

Serotonin Toxicity

Getting back to serotonin for a moment, this is a major problem that most people aren’t aware of. There’s a disease process called serotonin syndrome, caused by excess serotonin in the gut. One of the signs of serotonin syndrome is loose stools or diarrhea.

If you’re one of the 40% of adult women in the United States over 40 who are taking an SSRI antidepressant, consider finding a competent physician to help you wean yourself from that drug as soon as possible. There are other safer ways to address depression and anxiety.

Safer, and far more beneficial would be drugs like Benadryl or diphenhydramine, which is an antihistamine. It can block serotonin quite effectively, as can famotidine (Pepsid). Also reduce your intake of tryptophan-rich foods, as tryptophan converts into serotonin. Khan adds:

“When it comes to the serotonin issue, it’s not always about production. It’s more about utilization. We can predict somebody’s genetic propensity to use serotonin. It’s in the length of the receptor. When somebody has the shorter receptor, it’s not that they’re producing less, but they can’t use it. They can’t utilize it efficiently, and so these people are often constantly irritable.

They’re very distractible. It becomes hard for their brain to prioritize a stimulus because they don’t have the right receptor to bind and experience the stimulus as it should be. So, they appear to be irritable and distractible. If things annoy you a lot, if things bother you, if you have trouble staying asleep in the second half of night, those are traits of serotonin dysregulation.”

The Hazards of Estrogen

While estrogen replacement therapy is all the rage, this strategy is likely doing far more harm than good. I strongly recommend avoiding estrogen replacement therapy, even bioidentical, organic estrogen replacement therapy. You can go on other forms of hormone therapy, but not estrogen. Khan explains:

“[Estrogen] is certainly one of our biggest toxic threats today, especially given that you have to think of it contextually. Our context today is not grandma’s context. [Due to] the hormone disruption and estrogen mimics we’re dealing with [today], you already have too much, and you’re adding more through hormone replacement therapy or birth control pills.

So, we’re already in a context where it’s a threat, so you have to pay attention to it. The layers you have to look at are dominance. So, what do I make? Am I more androgenized, am I more estrogenized? And you can predict that through the genes that metabolize each step of the cascade … progesterone to testosterone, to estrogen. What do I do in each one of those steps?

Many women — and men, by the way — are estrogen-dominant and just produce way too much. It’s [due to] a conversion of CYP19A1 to testosterone and estrogen. That’s why aromatase-inhibitor inhibitors work well, because you are just flowing the gene expression down in that one location, and all of a sudden, you have more free flowing testosterone.

By the way, there are three pathways that your estrogens convert into, potentially, before you clear them, and these metabolites are 2-, 4- and 16-hydroxy estrogen. 2-hydroxy estrogen is the good clean stuff you want. 4- and 16-hydroxy estrogen are toxic.

We’ve seen over and over again, when we’re dealing with breast cancer patients, ovarian cancer patients, who were told, ‘You have BRCA, go cut your breasts off.’ And then they’re just getting ovarian cancer instead. Or vice versa. It’s because of this.

So, BRCAs are a repair tool. It’s just supposed to fix things. It doesn’t cause anything. But these two metabolites, the 4 and 16 [are] highly inflammatory, [and] we know all chronic conditions are rooted in inflammation. For men, the 16-hydroxy pathway is closely connected to testicular cancer. In the androgen pathway, dihydrotestosterone fuels prostate cancer.”

Detox and Clearance of Estrogen

To detox estrogen, the same detox pathways used for other toxins also apply here, such as the glutathione pathway, antioxidation, superoxide dismutase and COMT, which is the tail end of methylation. COMT, in particular, is really important for clearing toxic estrogens, whereas glucuronidation deals with some of the androgen toxins.

“If you take a hormone therapy and look at this cascade, what are most women getting? They’re getting estradiol, typically, which converts into 4-hydroxy estrogen, which is a cancer fuel.

If you have a woman who is already teetering on the edge of poor health because she converts into one of these buckets and you give her estradiol, you’ve just given the raw ingredients to fuel this, and then all of a sudden inflammation’s through the roof. And where did this breast cancer come from?

I’m dealing with a family where there’s breast cancer, and a woman that previously had ovarian cancer. And what happened in those two parts of her life? Two years prior to the breast cancer, in menopause, she started her hormone replacement therapy, and she took estradiol …

Keep in mind, in menopause you don’t have a menstrual cycle anymore, so you’re not clearing that toxin. It just gets stored in fat. That’s what your body does with it, which is why you have inflammation in the breast. That’s where you have a lot of fat as a woman.

Take it back a couple of decades, when she had the ovarian cancer, it’s because she was on the birth control pill for eight years. Same thing, she was fueling more estrogen into that bucket that she converted into 4-hydroxy estrogen, which caused ovarian cancer at that time. Same problem. The root is the estrogen dominance and toxicity.

In men, we see things like gynecomastia, loss of libido, hair loss. And you’re seeing that in numbers today more than ever before. There are no manly men. Where did they all go?

We have estrogens in our water. Estrogens don’t break down, they’re like forever chemicals. When a woman flushes her tampon in the toilet or her birth control pill that she peed out and some guy drinks it months later, once it gets past filtration and sanitation, he’s still taking the estrogens in.

They’re still there. The challenge is that the total load just keeps increasing, and we’re all exposed to it. We have to think about not only what we make and who we are, but in the context of this estrogen toxic soup, where it’s everywhere already, so the total load is far too much.”

How to Measure Estrogen Excess

There are two ways to measure or gauge potential estrogen excess. One is to look at your genetics to understand how you metabolize estrogen. The other is to take a standard DUTCH test, which is commonly used to monitor patients on hormone replacement therapy.

Unfortunately, many doctors are not trained on interpreting metabolites. They’re looking at estrogen alone, not understanding that there are genes that metabolize and turn the estrogen into different things.

“We work with a lot of NHL hockey players,” Khan says. “In 2019, a bunch of them were coming to us with man boobs, and we found out there was a new trend of taking this AndroGel pack.

It’s a gel that goes on your stomach. Androgens, testosterone, enters your bloodstream, and the thinking is, ‘I gave you testosterone, you should have more testosterone.’

But … some men had the fast CYP19A1 gene that converts it all into estrogen. So, I gave you testosterone, but your body’s saying, ‘Turn that into estrogen.’ And that’s what you’re doing with it. All those gentlemen needed was an aromatase inhibitor. Just block the estrogen conversion.

That’s where knowing where to intervene in that cascade makes things a lot easier. Most of the time, we already have the raw ingredients, we just need to plug into the right place with the right supplement, either speed something up or slow something down.”

Better Options

I’m not opposed to all hormone replacement therapy. The master precursor hormone, though, is pregnenolone. That is the base hormone that converts to all others, and it’s unlikely to aromatize. The ideal administration route is once a day in a cacao butter suppository. DHEA, which is a male hormone, at 5 to 10 mg can also be added.

Easier, but not as effectively absorbed, would be to swallow it as an oral pill, but it must be taken with a saturated fat to make sure it bypasses liver metabolism. Something like a teaspoon of butter or beef with fat in it would also work.

DHEA can easily aromatize and can form estrogen, which is not a good thing, so you need to be careful about using too much. Those are two base hormones that people can use rather safely. You can also use progesterone, which is anti-estrogen.

The oral route is only about 85% effective with the butter, compared to nearly 100% with the suppository route. Cacao butter works much better than coconut oil, as it is a longer chain saturated fat and does not melt at room temperature. If you do use suppositories, ideally, you should not have a bowel movement for three to four hours after insertion.

Estrogen, aside from increasing intracellular calcium concentration, is also antimetabolic, as it slows down your metabolic rate and inhibits your thyroid function, both of which are bad news. It’s toxic to your body in most cases. It is likely only second to excess LA intake as a factor that increases your risk of cancer.

You do need it sometimes, certainly for reproductive purposes and for wound healing, but most of the time you have more than enough to fill those roles, and it’s just an excess, especially with all the xenoestrogens we’re exposed to in the food supply.

“Menopause is a protective measure,” Khan says. “You’re past the fertility stage of your life and this toxin that you needed for that purpose, you don’t need anymore, so your body naturally goes into a state to protect you by not having so much of it. We break nature and try and maintain it, not understanding why the body does this. It’s to protect you. That’s why you go into menopause.”

More Information

If you’re interested in learning more about gene sequencing and genetic testing, which Khan’s company, The DNA Company, does, please listen to the entire interview. We segue into that toward the end.

We also discuss a new Canadian bill that could potentially eliminate most nutritional supplements on the market. This, even though there has not been a single reported death in Canada from a nutritional supplement since 1965. You can learn more about this bill in “Discussion Paper on 2023 Health Canada Initiatives.”1

Basically, they intend to license supplements as drugs, which means bringing a product to market will end up costing around $250,000 to $500,000. “If you go to your naturopath who’s compounding something … they don’t even sell $20,000 of that product per year, so how are they going to pay $500,000 to get it registered?”

And, there’s no grandfather clause. They intend to do this for all products, including existing ones. The bill has already passed, so now they’re just working on its implementation. As a result of this bill, naturopaths may not be able to remain in business either, since they’ll have virtually nothing to prescribe, other than whole foods. “The intention is to put [supplements] in allopathic health care control,” Khan says.

Perhaps the most important take-home from this dialogue is that we need to be prepared. This is already happening in Canada, which means it probably won’t be long before the same kind of legislation shows up in the U.S. When it does, we have to be prepared to push back with all our might.

In closing, if you’re interested in getting genetic testing, go to thednacompany.com/Mercola for 15% (the discount will show at checkout). If you just want to learn more, visit theDNAway.com. There you can also learn more about Khan’s book, “The DNA Way.” You can also follow him on Instagram

Testing for ET Among Us

ARE THOSE COVID TESTS SEARCHING FOR “SOMEONE”?

ARE THOSE COVID TESTS SEARCHING FOR “SOMEONE”?

August 25, 2020 By Joseph P. Farrell

There’s been, of course, a focus in the news – and hence on this website – recently on the whole Fauci-Lieber-Wuhan virus narrative. Some of that focus has been on the various attempts to skew the numbers, and this in turn has focused on the tests for it. Odd stories have come out that have increasingly focused on the reliability, or lack thereof, of those tests, and some have entertained the speculation that the tests covertly involve (1) DNA testing and (2) DNA data collection. These types of speculations have focused on those odd stories of, for example, the governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine, first tested positive for the virus, and then, mere hours later, negative! (See: Ohio Gov. DeWine tests negative for COVID-19 hours after testing positive)

All this is background grist for the mill of today’s high octane speculation, and it’s really, really high octane speculation, and it isn’t even my own speculation, save insofar as I’ve entertained similar speculations. In a word, and beyond the questions about the covid statistics and how they’re being counted, I’ve sensed there is something underneath even that problematic that is just… well… “off.”

Well, this week’s “inbox” included the following article that was shared by “S”, and it’s both a stunner and a “whopper doozie” that, if true, raises that “offness” to a whole new degree and by several orders of magnitude. Indeed, “S” offered his own speculations which I shall do my best to recapitulate, because the implications of the article – again, if true – are obvious. Here’s the article:

BOMBSHELL: WHO Coronavirus PCR Test Primer Sequence is Found in All Human DNA

This article is so short, and such a stunner, that I cite it in full:

This was important enough that I wanted to get it out immediately. My research into the NCBI database for nucleotide sequences has lead to a stunning discovery. One of the WHO primer sequences in the PCR test for SARS-CoV-2 is found in all human DNA!

The sequence “CTCCCTTTGTTGTGTTGT” is an 18-character primer sequence found in the WHO coronavirus PCR testing protocol document. The primer sequences are what get amplified by the PCR process in order to be detected and designated a “positive” test result. It just so happens this exact same 18-character sequence, verbatim, is also found on Homo sapiens chromosome 8! As far as I can tell, this means that the WHO test kits should find a positive result in all humans. Can anyone explain this otherwise?

I really cannot overstate the significance of this finding. At minimum, it should have a notable impact on test results.

In other words, those who began to notice the peculiarity of the tests for the virus, and how they might be used to (1) collect human DNA, and (2) possibly covertly insert things into people’s nasal cavity, may have had a point, and then some. Again, assuming the article to be true, and given the vast amount of “positive” tests, are we really witnessing “false positives” that are, in fact, genuine in the sense that the patient is being shown to be human? And is this why there is such an emphasis on testing everyone?

Years ago, at the Secret Space Program conference of 2015 in Bastrop Texas, I offered the idea that the sudden rise of DNA testing corporations that will, through genetics, “show your ancestral history” might be a covert way of searching for people that look fully homo sapiens sapiens, but aren’t. The only way to determine whether or not such a population exists among us ala the old late 1960’s science-fiction TV show, The Invaders, would be to test for genetics. So why put a primer for a virus into a virus test that, essentially, is common to all humans, and then insist that everyone get tested? It might be exactly what one might do in order to search for such a population. This isn’t to say that the virus is not real, and that positive tests are ipso facto suspicious.  It is to suggest that maybe, under the guise of the planscamdemic, they’re really looking for something, or rather, someone else. And it might be that this is an underlying reason why the numbers “cases” as a percentage of the population appears to be so high, while actual deaths as a percentage of population appears to be so low.

If that sounds already off-the-end-of-the-speculation-twig, it is to be sure. But there’s an even worse implication, and this is where is gets completely crazy, because it might mean “testing negative” could be interpreted by the wilder and crazier sort, as testing not negative for the virus, but negative for humanity. In this regard, my mention of the old The Invaders TV series was not accidental, but to a purpose. The series, for those who do not know, starred actor Roy Thinnes, who accidentally discovers the “aliens among us”, who looks, walk, talk, and in all but very minor respects resemble humans, as they slowly take over the world through a process of infiltration. Thinnes’ character – “architect David Vincent”, an apt name for a small human trying to triumph over the covert “alien Goliath” – then spends the series trying to collect evidence and names of other witnesses to persuade the government to take action. Interestingly enough, Chris Carter, producer of the later aliens-among-us series, The X Files, in a master-stroke of TV esoterica had Thinnes star in a few episodes in the reverse role, playing one of those aliens-among-us.  But in any case, in the original Invaders series, Thinnes’ character shows up at the trial of a friend being accused of murdering a man, who it turns out, was one of those aliens-in-disguise, leading to the premise of “the alien defense” as the defense team, at Thinnes’ encouragement, argues that the murder was not murder because a human being had not been killed, neatly sidestepping the moral issue of how it is not murder when a thinking, rational intelligence being like us in all respects except DNA is dead at someone else’s hand.

See you on the flip side…

from:    https://gizadeathstar.com/2020/08/are-those-covid-tests-searching-for-someone/

Who’s Handling Your DNA?

Blackstone Reaches $4.7 Billion Deal to Buy Ancestry.com

Updated on
  • Firm will take about 75% ownership stake in Utah-based company
  • Alternative asset manager has a $156 billion cash pile
An Ancestry.com Inc. DNA kit
An Ancestry.com Inc. DNA kit

Blackstone Group Inc. acquired a majority stake in Ancestry.com Inc., the business known for family history research and DNA testing.

The deal is valued at $4.7 billion, Blackstone said in a statement Wednesday. It’s the first acquisition by Blackstone’s largest ever private equity fund. Silver Lake and Singaporean sovereign-wealth fund GIC Pte have been the majority owners since 2016. After the deal closes, Blackstone will own about 75% and GIC will still hold about 25% of Ancestry.com, said people familiar with the matter, who asked not to be identified because the information is private.

New York-based Blackstone is flush with cash as investors continue to bet big on the firm amid the uncertainty caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. Executives have in recent months touted success in navigating the 2008 financial crisis to show that the business, which has $156 billion in dry powder, will be well positioned to benefit from the current upheavals.

Many of the firm’s recent investments have been in growth companies and businesses likely to benefit from shifts in consumer behavior. Last month, the group announced it was investing in Oatly AB — a plant-based drink that’s been rapidly growing in popularity — with partners including Oprah Winfrey. Blackstone also owns a majority stake in MagicLab, the owner of dating app Bumble.

Deal talks regarding Ancestry.com started a few months ago, when much of the world was still at home and looking for things to do, said the people with knowledge of discussions.

Based in Lehi, Utah, Ancestry.com has more than 3 million paying subscribers and more than 18 million people in its DNA network. It sells at-home DNA testing kits to customers, competing with 23andMe Inc.

Ancestry.com first went public in 2009, raising $100 million. It was taken private in 2012 in a $1.6 billion buyout led by private equity firm Permira, and on at least two occasions since has considered going public again, though it never got the valuation it was seeking.

Silver Lake and GIC acquired their majority stake four years ago in a deal that valued the company at $2.6 billion. Prior owners, including management, Permira and Spectrum Equity, currently have a minority interest in the business.

Blackstone, the world’s largest alternative asset manager with $564 billion in assets, is also focused on growing its life sciences group. It has spent more than $1 billion this year investing in drugs that target high cholesterol, kidney disease in children and devices for diabetes patients.

Early in 2020, the firm bought $11 billion of public equities and liquid debt as values sank and markets became more volatile. It also took stakes in companies including 21Vianet, a Chinese data center business, and a portfolio of Hollywood film studios.

Morgan Stanley and Barclays Plc advised Ancestry. Latham & Watkins LLP is serving as legal adviser to Ancestry and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP advised Blackstone. Dechert LLP is legal adviser to GIC.

from:   https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/blackstone-said-to-reach-4-7-billion-deal-to-buy-ancestry-com

The DNA Database & We

Ancestry Websites Giving FBI Access to DNA Data; WikiLeaks Reveals CODIS Database Gifted To Other Countries; DHS Rolling Out Rapid DNA Nationwide

By Aaron Kesel

The FBI is abusing ancestry genealogy websites by tapping into their DNA data. What’s worse, these companies are giving up users’ data under presumed consent that is buried in their terms and conditions, according to several reports.

FamilyTreeDNA is the first company known to be cooperating directly with the FBI to give its agents access to its genealogy database, according to a BuzzFeed report.

A Family Tree DNA spokesperson told BuzzFeed that FamilyTree DNA’s agreement with the FBI gives the agency the ability to search more than a million genetic profiles — the majority of which were given by their customers without knowledge of the company’s relationship with the FBI. As part of the arrangement, Family Tree DNA has further agreed to test DNA evidence and identify the remains of deceased individuals in violent crimes for the FBI in its own laboratory.

In a statement, FamilyTreeDNA said that customers have the ability to opt out of matching features in their account settings. Doing so would prevent law enforcement from accessing their genetic information, but it also means a user would be unable to find potential family members through the service. According to Gizmodo, the company also seems to admonish those who choose to opt out by suggesting that it could be a “moral responsibility” to give up their private health information to the FBI.

However, the fact of genealogy companies are being subpoenaed by law enforcement isn’t a secret. In fact, it’s in the disclosures on their websites — FamilyTreeDNAAncestryDNA, and 23andMe.

Forensic magazine reports that the FBI had previously had access to FamilyTreeDNA’s database before the partnership with the FBI.

After news broke that the FBI was accessing user data, FamilyTreeDNA announced that it would allow its customers to bar law enforcement from accessing their data, Engadget reported.

As an interesting corporate connection to make, one of the co-founders of 23andMe, Anne Wojcicki, is married to Google’s Sergey Brin. Unsurprisingly, Google Inc. also backs the DNA analysis company.

Last year, Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline invested US$300 million in the DNA-testing company in a deal that should raise eyebrows. A drug company working together with a DNA database company … what could possibly go wrong?

Under the deal, GSK has exclusive rights for four years to use 23andMe’s DNA database to develop new medicines using human genetics.

Activist Post reported last year Houston police launched a pilot program with the company ANDE to test a machine called Rapid DNA that runs DNA tests in under two hours.

Local news station KHOU11 reported,

“This rapid DNA is the future. It comes down to when mathematicians stopped using abacuses and started using calculators. It’s that important to criminal justice,” said Lt. Warren Meeler, Houston Police Department, Homicide Division.

As part of the test program, proper protocol for using the technology has been to swab each piece of evidence twice. First, the Houston Forensic Science Center (HFSC) takes an official sample for the lab, then Houston police take a second sample for the trial machine.

Rapid DNA results can’t be used in court, and the technology is only used for investigations in Houston, according to the news outlet.

The technology has some forensic scientists worried about whether it should be used at crime scenes, warning about the accuracy of the technology.

“I think everybody is comfortable that if there is a high concentration of DNA from a single source, so an oral swab from an individual, we’re confident the instruments produce good data. The questions start to come in circumstances where we’ve got touch DNA — smaller quantities of DNA, more mixtures, there’s more people on that doorknob that I’m swabbing – there I’m not sure anybody knows yet,” said Dr. Peter Stout, President and CEO of the Houston Forensic Science Center.

However, further research shows that Houston isn’t the only city using rapid DNA, police departments across the country—have rolled out their own pilot programs to test these miniature portable DNA lab machines that originate from the DHS.

“Rapid DNA, a newly commercialized technology developed by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Science and Technology Directorate (S&T), addresses these challenges by greatly expediting the testing of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) that is the only biometric that can accurately verify family relationships. This technology can be used on the scene of mass fatality events, in refugee camps around the world, or at immigration office,” the DHS’s website reads.

Police departments in Maryland,  PennsylvaniaSouth CarolinaFloridaUtah Arizona TexasCalifornia and in Delaware are or will be using DHS’s Rapid DNA.

An article in ProPublica warns that “over the last decade, collecting DNA from people who are not charged with — or even suspected of — any particular crime has become an increasingly routine practice for police.”

Congress enacted the “DNA Identification Act of 1994” authorizing the FBI to maintain a centralized, national DNA database and to develop a software system to allow for the sharing of information within and between states for law enforcement. By 2004, the resulting system – the Combined DNA Index System (CODIS) – connected the databases of all fifty states, which at that time were limited to profiles from those convicted of serious, violent crimes. Signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 30, 2004, the “Justice For All Act”  greatly expanded the CODIS system, allowing collection of DNA from all federal felons and further enabling states to upload to CODIS profiles from anyone convicted of a crime according to a secret congressional WikiLeaks document entitled: “DNA Evidence: Legislative Initiatives in the 106th Congress.”

On January 5, 2006, a barely noticed piece of legislation entitled the “DNA Fingerprint Act of 2005” was also signed into law by President George W. Bush, that severely expanded the government’s authority to collect and permanently retain DNA samples. The bill slipped through virtually unnoticed because the law was, buried in the back of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) reauthorization bill.

Unbeknownst to the public, the bill granted the government authority to obtain and permanently store DNA from anyone who is arrested as well as non-U.S. citizens detained under federal authorities like Border Control and DHS.

In December of 2015 nearly 10 years later, results from a rapid DNA device were submitted as evidence in a successful murder prosecution for the first time attempted murder case in Richland County, South Carolina. (That article now has been curiously deleted from Reuters and is only available on archive.org)

A bill before Congress, introduced on December 2015 by Sen. Orin Hatch, R-Utah, called for profiles collected by Rapid DNA devices to be connected to the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS, the software and national database that stores DNA profiles from federal, state and local forensic laboratories.

During a Senate committee hearing on the Rapid DNA Act of 2015, disgraced former FBI Director James Comey said that passage of the bill “would help us change the world in a very, very exciting way. It will allow us, in booking stations around the country, if someone’s arrested, to know instantly—or near instantly—whether that person is the rapist who’s been on the loose in a particular community before they’re released on bail and get away or to clear somebody, to show that they’re not the person.”

In 2017, Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA) introduced “the SECURE Act” (S. 2192) on December 5th. The bill largely borrows from two other federal bills—H.R. 3548 and S. 1757

The Rapid DNA Act of 2017, S.139 and HR.510 passed last year, amended the DNA Identification Act of 1994, allowing previous hurdles to be surpassed by the new technology.

The bill was sponsored by U.S. Senate sponsor Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT) and lead co-sponsor Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) as well as House sponsor Congressman James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) and lead co-sponsor Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA), along with 12 Senate and 24 House co-sponsors for their support, Business Wire reported.

“Today marks a landmark day in more efficiently fighting crime and supporting law enforcement,” stated Robert Schueren, President and CEO of IntegenX. “IntegenX products have already enabled numerous DNA profile uploads to our nation’s DNA database (CODIS). We look forward to the updated FBI guidelines, and subsequent CODIS uploads from the booking environment.”

“Rapid DNA is a promising new technology and an effective tool for law enforcement – I’m thrilled to be seeing it signed into law. This technology will help quickly identify arrestees and offenders, reduce the overwhelming backlog in forensic DNA analysis, and make crime fighting more efficient while helping to prevent future crimes from occurring. It will also save time and taxpayer dollars,” commented Congressman Sensenbrenner, Chairman of the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Crime, Terrorism, Homeland Security and Oversight.

“This bill will help law enforcement agencies solve crimes faster and help those wrongfully accused to be exonerated from crimes they did not commit—almost instantly. The Rapid DNA Act updates the statutory framework in how DNA samples are entered into the FBI’s Combined DNA Index System by allowing the use of this remarkable Rapid DNA technology,” stated Senator Hatch.

In 2017, President Trump signed into law the Rapid DNA Act, which, enables police booking stations in several states to connect their Rapid DNA machines to CODIS, the national DNA database.

But CODIS isn’t only shared by the states. We learn from a Plus D WikiLeaks release, that the DNA information processing and telecommunications system was gifted to Argentina in 2009 by U.S. Ambassador Earl Wayne, according to a cable. The system was gifted to “help the province solve crimes and exonerate innocent suspects.”

“On the very topical issue of crime and personal security, the Ambassador helped launch the province’s participation in the Combined DNA Indexing System (CODIS). CODIS, an automated DNA information processing and telecommunications system, was donated by the FBI,” the cable reads.

Meanwhile, another WikiLeaks Plus D cable talks about “specialized training and state of the art equipment donations enabling Colombian forensic labs to investigate human rights violations more effectively. These donations included the enhancement of DNA analyzers and the CODIS database; upgrading of the Integrated Ballistics Identification System (IBIS); updating of forensic imaging and document analysis systems; upgrading of the automated fingerprint identification system; and the design and installation of a wireless network providing inter-agency connectivity and information sharing,” according to the cable, entitled: “SUPPORTING HUMAN RIGHTS AND DEMOCRACY: THE U.S. RECORD IN COLOMBIA 2004-2005.”

This leads us to several questions.  First, how many more countries were given access to the CODIS system; is this DNA database shared amongst countries in an agreement similar to the Five Eyes spying arrangement, or did the U.S. sell the software similar to the infamous PROMIS software? And, like PROMIS (Inslaw scandal), does this software have a backdoor for U.S. intel agencies to access other countries’ DNA data?

These are all questions we should find ourselves asking.

Even the DHS is looking into using the Rapid DNA technology for immigration purposes to stop adults fleeing with kids and ensure that they are their actual relatives. But later the DHS postponed the technology in 2015 to develop a stricter protocol for its use, Nextgov reported.

“The implementation of the program has been postponed until new voluntary consent forms are developed as well as operational protocols for translation,” Department of Homeland Security spokesman John Verrico told Nextgov in an email.

DHS documents obtained by the EFF state that the military may be interested in using rapid DNA in the future to reveal information about individuals such as their sex, race, health, and age.

In a 2013 privacy impact assessment for Rapid DNA pilot testing, the DHS stated that the portion of DNA analyzed by the devices does not reveal any “sensitive information about an individual, and will not, under any circumstances, be used for decisions based on those criteria.”

The EFF disagrees with Comey and the DHS, and has previously stated that the test pilot DNA program “may create controversy,” according to internal documents obtained by the Electronic Frontier Foundation civil liberties group. In a high priority e-mail from 2011, a DHS officer wrote to colleagues that “if DHS fails to provide an adequate response to media inquiries regarding RapidDNA quickly, civil rights/civil liberties organizations may attempt to shut down the test program.”

There are already numerous issues with keeping a DNA data bank. Privacy and civil rights advocates and watchdog groups have argued against the practice in California of retaining DNA from legally innocent people, thereby violating constitutional privacy rights, Mercury News reported.

Further, forensic labs (including the FBI) have shown flaws over the last few years exposing shoddy laboratory procedures including – grossly inaccurate testimony by law enforcement, and, in a few cases, outright false documentation or mixing up of results. DNA has been constantly linked to the wrong person similar to facial recognition biometric data.

If that’s not all reason enough for us to be skeptical about these systems, in 2015, the FBI found DNA data errors within its own national CODIS database, The Washington Post reported.

In another case, familial DNA was the culprit responsible for a false positive on a murder in Idaho. This resulted in Michael Usry in a police station with an FBI agent cotton swabbing him as he was completely confused by what was happening, Wired reported in 2015.

While genetics might be able to identify a felon, forensic scientists and lawyers agree that the information gathered can’t be able to gather more than that. As the Supreme Court wrote in its Maryland v King decision to allow DNA collection, this issue is “open to dispute.”

Forensic magazine notes the dangers of a DNA database, stating its a threat to “medical privacy.”

These genetic databases are an absolute gold mine for law enforcement. I am not sure anyone can argue that catching serial killers and rapists, or using CODIS for tracking missing children is bad; however, problems start to arise when these genetic databases are used to target people for deportation or sweep up the completely innocent in its dragnet.

Along with facial recognition, DNA databases are the first step towards an Orwellian society where the government knows your whereabouts, at all times. It’s a nightmarish outlook for our future; but what’s worse in some instances, like in the form of DNA, we are being tricked to give up our freedoms and privacy.  As a CRS Congressional “think tank” report warned:  “future DNA collection cases might raise graver Fourth Amendment privacy concerns than previous cases.”

The FBI plans to begin rolling out Rapid DNA to more police departments slowly in 2019, according to a Washington Post report.

“Our goal in 2019 is to be able to have a pilot project done where we actually develop a DNA profile in a booking station, with no human review, and have it electronically enrolled and searched in the national database,” Thomas Callaghan, chief biometric scientist for the FBI Laboratory, told the news outlet. “We have to ensure that the quality that’s done in a lab can be done in a booking station.

Aaron Kesel writes for Activist Post. Support us at Patreon. Follow us on Minds, Steemit, SoMee, BitChute, Facebook and Twitter. Ready for solutions? Subscribe to our premium newsletter Counter Markets.

from:    https://www.activistpost.com/2019/04/ancestry-websites-giving-fbi-access-to-dna-data-wikileaks-reveals-codis-database-gifted-to-other-countries-dhs-rolling-out-rapid-dna-nationwide.html

What’s In Your DNA?

  • Scientists have a new computational method that expands the way commercial and public gene databases can be used by law enforcement to catch criminals
  • While police still need a warrant to access data on sites like 23andMe and Ancestry.com, the new findings make it easier for them to track down criminals
  • The development raises privacy concerns, as criminals can be tracked down through family members who submitted their DNA through commercial sites 

Scientists are expanding the methods by which law enforcement can use DNA information gathered through sites like Ancestry.com and 23andMe to solve crimes – and they’re raising ethical questions along the way.

California detectives have already used DNA obtained through public databases to track down and arrest Joseph James DeAngelo, suspected of being the Golden State Killer, who police say committed at least 13 murders, more than 50 rapes, and more than 100 burglaries in California from 1974 to 1986.

But now, according to a study published Thursday in the scientific journal Cell, researchers say they have developed a new computational method that expands the way commercial and public gene databases can be cross-referenced with those used by law enforcement.

The result: More crimes solved and countless ethical concerns raised, as many people could be linked to crimes simply because a relative submitted DNA to find out more about their family’s ancestry. Warrants are required to obtain such information from private companies like Ancestry.com and 23andMe.

‘We think when we upload DNA that it’s our information, but it’s not. It’s the information of everyone who is biologically related to us,’ said Julia Creet, a Toronto-based researcher focused on the family history industry, in an interview with DailyMail.com.

Researchers at Stanford University have found a new computational method that expands teh way commercial and public gene databases can be cross-referenced with those used by law enforcement to solve crimes (file photo)

The goal of using public and commercial databases to solve crimes is more technically challenging than it may seem, as they tend to rely on completely different genetic markers than those used by law enforcement to identify potential criminals.

‘There’s a legacy problem in that so many DNA profiles have been collected with this older genetic marker system that’s been used by law enforcement since the 1990s,’ said senior author Noah Rosenberg, of Stanford University. ‘The system is not designed for the more challenging queries that are currently of interest, such as identifying people represented in a DNA mixture or identifying relatives of the contributor of a DNA sample.’

 This is a kind of Wild West of privacy protection and we’re dealing with the most personal type of information.                             – Julia Creet, director of Data Mining the Deceased

Researchers set out to see if they could use the newer, more modern system of genetic markers used in commercial methods and test those against the older law enforcement system to obtain matches and find relatives.

The FBI and police departments across the U.S. use a DNA database known as the Combined DNA Index System, or CODIS. It relies on 20 DNA markers, which are different from those used in common ancestry databases – which scan across hundreds of thousands of sites in the genome.

Rosenberg and his team previously found that software could match people found in both databases even when there were no overlapping, or shared, markers between the two sets of data.

In their new research, the team found that the same approach could be applied to track down close family members – roughly 31 percent of the time in cases of parent-offspring pairs and 36 percent were linked among sibling pairs.

‘We wanted to examine to what extent these different types of databases can communicate with each other,’ Rosenberg said. ‘It’s important for the public to be aware that information between these two types of genetic data can be connected, often in unexpected ways.’

This means that law enforcement can more easily track down criminals even when the actual perpetrator has not submitted any DNA, as was the case in the Golden State Killer investigation.

In that instance, detectives submitted DNA collected from a crime scene for the traditional law enforcement genotyping, then used an open-source ancestry database called GEDmatch to link that profile to people who had voluntarily submitted their information into the database.

Many people who obtain their genetic data through commercial sites like Ancestry.com and 23andMe later upload that information into GEDmatch in an effort to connect with other family members around the globe.

Police found relatives who had overlapping DNA markers and through a process of elimination tracked down DeAngelo.

 These are decisions that society can make. We need to have a robust conversation.                           – Dr. Ellen Clayton, Vanderbilt University

Police were able to access the information on GEDmatch because it was a public database, but law enforcement has successfully used warrants to obtain similar data directly from sites like Ancestry.com. Ancestry.com has 10 million customers, while 23andMe has more than 5 million.

A spokesman for 23andMe said the company uses strong security and privacy protocols to protect customer data – and that it warns customers that those guarantees don’t extend to any third-party sites where they choose to share their personal information.

A spokesman for Ancestry.com said the company prioritizes customer privacy and gives people a chance to opt out of sharing their information with other users. He added that the company will fight any efforts by law enforcement to obtain its data.

For those who have sought to learn more about their own background, the news could raise serious privacy concerns, said Creet, who directed and produced Data Mining the Deceased, a documentary about the industry of DNA and geneology.

‘Once your results have been uploaded into a collective database there is no way to extract them because other people have picked up on them,’ she said.

Joseph James DeAngelo. Police say DeAngelo is a suspected California serial killer known as the Golden State Killer who committed at least 13 homicides and 45 rapes throughout the state in the 1970s and '80s.

Joseph James DeAngelo. Police say DeAngelo is a suspected California serial killer known as the Golden State Killer who committed at least 13 homicides and 45 rapes throughout the state in the 1970s and ’80s.

Creet said anytime a person submits their DNA to a company to learn more about their heritage, it’s worth considering that they are also submitting 50 percent of their parents’ and children’s DNA, and 25 percent of their grandparents’ or grandchildren’s DNA.

‘Your results aren’t just about you,’ Creet added. ‘They’re about everyone you’re related to, which is how the police can use your results to track down a criminal who is distantly related to you. We’re not just talking about personal privacy; we’re talking about relational privacy.’

Experts are also concerned about how private companies are using genetic information they obtain. Ancestry.com is partnered with Calico, which is a Google spinoff, in an effort to analyze anonymized data from more than 1 million genetic samples.

Creet said that – given data breaches at other types of tech companies – there is significant cause for concern that even anonymized data could fall into the wrong hands and be re-identified.

Other issues could arise if health insurance companies were ever able to obtain genetic data on their customers and use that to discriminate against those with predispositions for certain diseases, she added.

‘This is a kind of Wild West of privacy protection and we’re dealing with the most personal type of information,’ Creet said.

Key Ethical Questions When Using DNA in Law Enforcement

DNA isn’t just personal: Do I want to share my sister’s DNA? Anyone who submits their own DNA for testing is also providing genetic info about any of their family members, which could later be accessed by law enforcement or for other unforeseen purposes.

Who owns the data: Who will get access to my DNA? A Google-spinoff company is partnering with Ancestry.com to analyze anonymized genetic data, which many users did not know at the time they submitted their DNA samples. Hacking is also a concern.

Regulation: How should lawmakers limit the usage of genetic data in solving crimes? Should health insurers have access to the information and be allowed to use it to charge more for people with predispositions to expensive health problems? Very little regulation currently exists defining how this data can be used.

Ultimately, society will have to decide if it’s worth losing a great deal of genetic privacy to solve violent crimes, said Dr. Ellen Clayton, a professor at Vanderbilt University’s Center for Biomedical Ethics and Society.

‘The question is: How do you control the downstream users?’ Clayton told DailyMail.com. ‘Do you want to say that law enforcement should only use these kinds of data to find people who you suspect are perpetrators of very heinous violent crimes: rape, murder, etc.?’

Society can reach an answer to that question through legislation that prohibits the use of genetic data for other purposes, such as immigration enforcement, employment discrimination, or to solve minor, nonviolent crimes, she said.

‘These are decisions that society can make. We need to have a robust conversation about that,’ she said.

Clayton also noted that the vast majority of DNA data in law enforcement’s CODIS is disproportionately representative of racial and ethnic minorities. At the same time, the people using private companies to find out their genetic identities tend to be white and of Northern European descent.

‘One reason that really matters is that they couldn’t find the Golden State Killer in CODIS because he was a police man. He was a white police man,’ Clayton said.

from:    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6266115/New-technology-enables-police-use-DNA-sites-like-Ancestry-com-track-criminals.html

Random DNA Highway Checkpoints Open Now

Drivers Across Country Randomly Being Pulled Over For Blood, Saliva, DNA

What would you do if a cop pulled you over for no reason other than to convince you to submit to a DNA swab test inside your mouth?  And then offered you money but not much of a choice in the matter?  Would you claim it to be unconstitutional or acquiesce?

Kim Cope, a driver pulled over in Texas said, “I gestured to the guy in front that I just wanted to go straight, but he wouldn’t let me and forced me into a parking spot.”

Attorney Rory Ellinger pointed out, “To the average person, all the authority and prosecutorial demeanor of an officer directing you to pull over amounts to an order, not a voluntary act.”

St. Charles County, Missouri, Sheriff Tom Neer said his department had been “duped” into cooperating with the government subcontractor conducting the study. He said, “We will not cooperate with one of these federal checkpoints again. And we would not have contracted with the subcontractor on this one if we had known in advance that our officers would be asked to flag down motorists. In essence, we got duped, and shame on me.”

Civil liberty attorney Frank Colosi said, “You can’t just be pulled over randomly or for no reason. They’re essentially lying to you when they say it’s completely voluntary, because they’re testing you at that moment.”
Sources:

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/North-Texas-Drivers-Stopped-at-Roadblock-Asked-for-Saliva-Blood-232438621.html?_osource=SocialFlowFB_DFWBrand

http://filmingcops.com/checkpoints/

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/local-officials-decry-feds-voluntary-sobriety-checkpoints/article_c44c9c0c-230c-5d63-8f83-cdaec9d0da01.html

http://benswann.com/drivers-across-the-nation-randomly-pulled-over-asked-for-blood-saliva-samples/

Credits: Minds

from:    http://themindunleashed.org/2013/12/drivers-across-country-randomly-pulled-blood-saliva-dna.html