Tick Boot Camp Podcast
Dr. David Jernigan was featured on the Tick Boot Camp Podcast:
- Coming soon…
About Dr. David Jernigan
Dr. David A. Jernigan, DNM, DC, is an author, researcher, clinician, and founder of the Biologix Center for Optimum Health in Franklin, Tennessee. His work has focused for decades on people living with complex, chronic, and treatment-resistant illnesses, including Lyme disease and other tick-borne infections.
Dr. Jernigan approaches chronic illness through the lens of biological and bioregulatory medicine, with an emphasis on supporting the body’s regulatory systems rather than focusing exclusively on individual pathogens or symptoms.
His more recent work has focused heavily on bacteriophages—viruses that interact with bacteria—and the development of Induced Native Phage Therapy (INPT), an approach intended to influence phages already present within the body.
Lyme Disease and Chronic Illness
Dr. Jernigan has worked with people diagnosed with Lyme disease and complex chronic illness since the 1990s.
His involvement with Lyme disease began after a mother and her twin sons came to his Kansas practice with Lyme disease. At the time, knowledge about persistent and complex tick-borne illness was far more limited. Their cases led Dr. Jernigan into decades of clinical work, research, writing, and the development of approaches intended to help people with chronic illness.
Over time, his view of Lyme disease expanded beyond simply attempting to eliminate Borrelia. He began considering factors such as other microorganisms, detoxification, neurological function, immune regulation, inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, environmental exposures, and the body’s overall biological terrain.
Dr. Jernigan has described this broader picture as a form of multi-microbial activation, where Lyme disease may exist alongside or contribute to the activation of other microorganisms and physiological dysfunction.
His books on Lyme disease include early editions of Surviving Lyme Disease and Beating Lyme Disease. His writing and clinical philosophy emphasize helping the body restore function while addressing factors that may contribute to persistent symptoms.
Over the course of his career, Dr. Jernigan has also developed testing and therapeutic approaches including Biospectral Emission Sequencing, NeuroPhotonic Therapy, NeuroCardial Synchronization, and other techniques used within his biological medicine model.
Induced Native Phage Therapy (INPT)
Induced Native Phage Therapy (INPT) is one of the primary areas of Dr. David Jernigan’s current research and clinical work. The easiest way to understand INPT is to first understand bacteriophages.
What Are Bacteriophages?
Bacteriophages, usually shortened to “phages,” are viruses that infect bacteria. They are naturally found throughout the environment and within the human body as part of our microbial ecosystem.
Unlike antibiotics, which can affect many different types of bacteria, phages can have highly specific relationships with particular bacteria.
One way to think about a bacteriophage is as a naturally occurring bacterial predator. A phage can attach to a susceptible bacterium and use that bacterium as part of its replication process. With certain phages, this ultimately causes the bacterial cell to rupture, or lyse, releasing additional phages that can encounter other susceptible bacteria.
The enormous collection of phages living within the human body is sometimes referred to as the phageome.
How Is INPT Different From Conventional Phage Therapy?
Conventional phage therapy typically involves identifying or developing phages that target a particular bacterial infection and then introducing those phages into the patient.
Dr. Jernigan’s Induced Native Phage Therapy is based on a different concept.
Rather than administering externally sourced phages, INPT is designed around attempting to influence bacteriophages that are already naturally present within a person’s body.
This distinction is central to INPT.
Dr. Jernigan proposes that the human microbiome contains enormous numbers of native phages, including phages capable of interacting with microorganisms contributing to illness. His approach is intended to encourage or “induce” selected native phages to become more active against targeted microorganisms.
In simple terms, instead of bringing bacterial predators into the body from the outside, INPT attempts to activate bacterial predators that may already be there.
How Does Dr. Jernigan Propose INPT Works?
According to Dr. Jernigan’s model, some bacteriophages can exist in a relatively dormant or lysogenic relationship with bacteria and may be influenced to shift toward a more active lytic phase in which the bacterial host is destroyed.
Dr. Jernigan describes INPT as using electromagnetic or bioresonance-based information intended to influence native phages associated with targeted microorganisms.
Importantly, the formulas used in his approach do not contain externally administered bacteriophages. Instead, they are intended to provide information that interacts with phages already present within the body.
During his Tick Boot Camp interview, Dr. Jernigan compared the concept to making a highly specific call: many signals may be present, but only a phage capable of responding to a particular target would theoretically “answer the phone.”
He has developed formulas intended to address groups of microorganisms associated with particular conditions or areas of the body, including Lyme and tick-borne illness, gastrointestinal infections, respiratory infections, mold-related illness, and other complex conditions.
Why Could Phages Matter in Lyme Disease?
Dr. Jernigan has explored INPT in the context of Lyme disease, relapsing fever, and other complex or treatment-resistant illnesses.
Lyme disease is caused by bacteria belonging to the Borrelia genus, making the relationship between bacteria and bacteriophages particularly interesting in the study of tick-borne illness.
Phages are also being investigated more broadly because of characteristics that can include bacterial specificity, replication in the presence of susceptible bacterial hosts, and interactions with bacterial biofilms.
Dr. Jernigan’s work asks a more specific question: rather than finding and administering an outside phage for every microbial target, could the enormous population of phages already living within the human body be influenced to help control problematic microorganisms?
That question is at the heart of Induced Native Phage Therapy.
Phages, Biofilms, and Intracellular Bacteria
Another area of interest in phage research involves biofilms.
Biofilms are structured microbial communities that can create protective environments around bacteria and may make certain infections more difficult to address.
Dr. Jernigan discusses research suggesting that some phages and phage-associated enzymes can interact with or break down components of bacterial biofilms, potentially allowing them to reach bacteria protected within these structures.
He also explores the relationship between phages and intracellular bacteria—microorganisms capable of residing inside human cells. Dr. Jernigan believes the natural relationship between bacteria and their associated phages may allow phage activity to occur in locations that can be difficult to reach through other approaches.
INPT and the Herxheimer Reaction
Dr. Jernigan has also challenged the idea that patients must feel significantly worse before they feel better during Lyme disease treatment.
Many people with Lyme disease are familiar with the Jarisch-Herxheimer reaction, commonly called “Herxing,” in which symptoms may temporarily worsen during antimicrobial treatment.
Dr. Jernigan proposes that phage-mediated bacterial destruction may occur differently from some other antimicrobial approaches and believes this may help explain why he reports fewer significant Herxheimer-type reactions with INPT.
This has made treatment tolerance an important part of his discussion of INPT, particularly for people with Lyme disease, mast cell activation, inflammation, or extreme sensitivity to medications and supplements.
INPT, Lyme Disease, and Treatment-Resistant Illness
Dr. Jernigan and colleagues published a 2021 retrospective review titled Induced Native Phage Therapy for the Treatment of Lyme Disease and Relapsing Fever: A Retrospective Review of First 14 Months in One Clinic.
His research has since expanded beyond Lyme disease alone.
A 2024 publication, Induced Native Phage Cocktails for Multi-microbial Activation Syndrome in Treatment-Resistant Illnesses, explored the concept in patients with complex illnesses involving multiple microbial targets.
This reflects a broader part of Dr. Jernigan’s philosophy: patients with chronic illness may not always be dealing with one organism operating in isolation.
Lyme disease can exist alongside other tick-borne infections and complex changes involving the microbiome, immune system, inflammation, environmental exposures, and other physiological systems.
INPT is therefore part of a larger biological and bioregulatory model at the Biologix Center rather than being presented simply as a standalone approach to Borrelia.
Treating Infection and Restoring Health
A major part of Dr. Jernigan’s philosophy is the distinction between reducing an infectious burden and restoring a person’s overall health.
He uses the analogy of termites damaging a house. If termites are discovered and eliminated early, there may be little structural damage to repair. But if termites have been present for years, killing them does not automatically rebuild the house.
Dr. Jernigan applies the same concept to chronic illness.
Even if an infectious burden is successfully reduced, a person may still be dealing with neurological, immune, metabolic, inflammatory, structural, or other dysfunction that developed during years of illness.
For this reason, his approach combines work directed at microorganisms with efforts intended to restore broader structural and functional integrity.
Research and Publications
Dr. Jernigan’s published work spans Lyme disease, biological medicine, bacteriophages, bioenergetic testing, and treatment-resistant chronic illness.
Selected publications and presentations include:
- Surviving Lyme Disease Using Alternative Medicine (1997)
- Surviving Lyme Disease, 2nd Edition (1999)
- Research presented at the 1999 International Tick-Borne and Infectious Disease Conference examining Borrelia burgdorferi antigen release following a nutraceutical formula
- Beating Lyme Disease: Using Alternative Medicine and God-Designed Living (2004)
- Illuminated Physiology and the Medical Uses of Light (2004)
- Realities of Antibiotics for Lyme Disease (2007)
- Lyme Toxins: The Cause of Your Symptoms (2007)
- Hyperammonemia in Lyme Disease, Bacterial Toxins the Cause of Your Symptoms (2008)
- Bacteria-Focused Treatment of Lyme Disease May be Incorrect (2013)
- Induced Native Phage Therapy for the Treatment of Lyme Disease and Relapsing Fever: A Retrospective Review of First 14 Months in One Clinic (2021)
- Induced Native Phage Cocktails for Multi-microbial Activation Syndrome in Treatment-Resistant Illnesses (2024)
- Adjunctive Testing Using Biospectral Emission Sequencing: Bioregulatory Intelligence Technology in Parallel With the Goals of Artificial Intelligence in Medicine (2024)
Education and Training
Dr. Jernigan earned a Bachelor of Science in Nutrition, graduating cum laude from Park University, and a Doctor of Chiropractic degree from Cleveland Chiropractic University in Kansas City.
His postgraduate education has included training in botanical medicine, homeopathy, acupuncture and meridian therapy, European biological medicine, anthroposophically extended medicine, low-level laser therapy, and other complementary and biological medicine approaches.
He is also a board-certified Doctor of Natural Medicine and has served as a Research Fellow with the Occidental Institute and as a board member of the Bioregulatory Medicine Institute.
Biologix Center for Optimum Health
Dr. Jernigan founded the Biologix Center for Optimum Health in Franklin, Tennessee.
The center works with patients experiencing complex and treatment-resistant chronic illnesses and utilizes a biological and bioregulatory approach to care.
Rather than treating every patient according to the same diagnosis or standardized protocol, Dr. Jernigan emphasizes evaluating the individual patient and identifying the combination of infections, physiological dysfunction, environmental factors, and other stressors that may be contributing to illness.
The center has become particularly associated with Dr. Jernigan’s work involving Lyme disease, chronic infections, biological medicine, bacteriophages, and Induced Native Phage Therapy.
Work With Dr. David Jernigan
Dr. Jernigan works with patients through the Biologix Center for Optimum Health in Franklin, Tennessee, including individuals dealing with Lyme disease, tick-borne illness, and other complex or treatment-resistant chronic conditions.
Patients interested in learning more about Dr. Jernigan, his approach, and opportunities to work with him can visit the Biologix Center for Optimum Health website.
INPT for Doctors and Healthcare Providers
Dr. Jernigan has also expanded access to Induced Native Phage Therapy through PhaGenCorp, which provides education and training for qualified healthcare professionals interested in learning about the approach and becoming INPT providers.
Doctors and healthcare professionals can learn more at the PhaGenCorp website.
