Ask the Doctor: New Innovations in Phage Therapy

Readers of Life Extension Magazine® are familiar with the concept of phages or bacteriophages, which are packets of protein that destroy harmful bacteria, especially in the gut. When combined with probiotics, these phages can help restore a healthy digestive balance.

For many specialized conditions, targeted phage therapy can be therapeutic. This requires the intervention and guidance of a doctor. Dr. David A. Jernigan, founder and CEO of the Biologix Center for Optimum Health in Franklin, Tennessee, and a pioneer in phage therapy has developed an innovative treatment called Induced Native Phage Therapy. Unlike traditional phage therapy, Dr. Jernigan's method is proposed to stimulate the phages that already live in your body that target and kill various types of infection.

In this interview, Dr. David Jernigan, explains the history of phage therapy and how new breakthroughs are revolutionizing phage treatment.¹

Before antibiotics, infections were treated with bacteriophages found in the earth. Scientists discovered that they killed off bad bacteria, leaving the healthy bacteria intact. When pharmaceutical antibiotics were introduced, they were easy and cheaper than the laborious process of selecting the right phage for the condition, and they quickly replaced phage therapy. Now, with antibiotic resistance reaching epidemic levels, scientists are slowly rediscovering the powerful therapeutic benefits of this drug-free treatment.

LE: Can you explain what phage therapy is? 

Dr. Jernigan: Bacteriophages, or phages for short, are beneficial viruses that only infect bacteria. The word bacteriophage literally means "bacteria-eater."²

Bacteriophages were discovered in 1917 and have been in therapeutic use in isolated areas around the world ever since. Conventional phage therapy is when doctors use phages found in the environment to selectively reduce or kill specific harmful bacteria. Phage therapy often works better than advanced antibiotics, even with multi-drug-resistant infections.²

LE: Please describe the process of how bacteriophages are used in therapy.

Dr. Jernigan: In conventional phage therapy, bacteriophages are found in bacteria-rich environments, such as manure, soil, and sewage. All bacteria in nature are already infected with their own unique type of bacteriophage. Scientists isolate and identify the type of phages and name them based upon the type of bacteria they use as a host, such as E. coli-phage for those found infecting E. coli bacteria. These bacteriophages are then stored in phage banks to be matched in a petri-dish to the type of infection from which a person is suffering. Once one or more phages are identified that should work to kill your infection, they will be administered via a cocktail intravenously, via intramuscular injections, nasal sprays, or oral solutions.

LE: Is this the phage therapy you use?

Dr. Jernigan: No. In 2019, I invented a completely unique way to activate or induce specific beneficial phages already living inside the body I named this Induced Native Phage Therapy.³ These phages are beneficial viruses that help your immune system keep the many populations of microbes in your body from growing out of control. Your readers might relate these beneficial viruses to the already widely recognized beneficial bacteria that help us regulate our body. These beneficial viruses (phages) do not ever infect human cells. They only infect other microbes.

Researchers have found over 32,000 different beneficial phage populations just in the healthy human gut, significantly more than the 300 or so conventional phages stored in most phage banks.

LE: Can you explain this therapy in greater detail? How are your phages delivered to the patient?

Dr. Jernigan: Instead of introducing phages into your body, as in conventional phage therapy, Induced Native Phage Therapy is an oral liquid solution that carries the complex signals to induce the aid of monovalent or polyvalent phages that already live in your body to target and kill just the type of infection your doctor is treating. When the phages are successful, the targeted bacterial population can be eliminated within 24-48 hours in recently acquired infections and within days to weeks in deep-seated infections.

Research shows that phages can even kill the bacteria inside cells and those hiding behind biofilms.

These formulations are packaged in individually sealed glass, sterile ampules, so there is no chemical agent or preservative in the formulation. The ampules come packaged with a tiny straw so you can break off the top of the ampule, insert the straw and sip out the individual dose, swish on the teeth and swallow. Most often doctors recommend taking one ampule twice a day in a naturally clean mouth.

The formulation only acts on the specific native phages that would naturally be able to infect the specific infection being targeted. These liquid formulations are called Inducen™ formulas, of which there are 14 different illness-specific products. Each Inducen™ formula contains induction signatures for all the typical microbes commonly associated with the illness. For instance, the Inducen-LD/RF formulation, which was formulated for people who have recent or treatment-resistant Lyme disease or Relapsing Fever illness, targets about 90 different types of microbes commonly seen in these illnesses, since there are often many co-infections and opportunistic infections that take advantage of a person's weakened condition. This formulation has all of the many types of Borrelia, Babesia, Bartonella strains and many other types of commonly seen co-infections all in one formulation. In our research, with over 100,000 doses given to very sick and sensitive cases, we have had no reported adverse effects from these new Inducen™ remedies. However, maintaining a good detox program is still recommended to help the body with any heavy metals and other toxins released from the dead microbes.

LE: Are there side effects or risks to this phage therapy?

Dr. Jernigan: In over 100,000 doses given, there have been no reported adverse effects! Induced Native Phage Therapy is completely non-toxic and non-allergenic. We are not putting new phages into the patient, so there is no immune response against them. The signals contained in the oral supplement that activates the phages are essentially invisible to the immune system and regulatory aspects of the body.

LE: How did you get involved in researching phages? 

Dr. Jernigan: For almost three decades, I specialized in treating people who were considered chronically ill or incurable. Seeing only the toughest cases forced me to innovate new ways of testing and treating.

Beyond my patients, my muse was my wife, who had been sick from birth. For all my efforts, I could not get her completely well. I began reading innumerable books and peer-reviewed science articles about phages. I also developed a technology called Biospectral Emission Sequence testing, which enables a doctor to sequence electromagnetic signatures to determine where a problem is arising, what is causing it, and how to enable the body to fix it. I used this technology to develop a way to stimulate native phages to target and eliminate specific bacteria. Induced Native Phage Therapy turned my wife's life around and has done the same for many of my patients.

LE: How did you know this new phage therapy worked?

Dr. Jernigan: To be successful, the phages need to eliminate the targeted bacteria. To validate Induced Native Phage Therapy, I did a study using the Phelix Borrelia-Phage test, a phage-based bacterial lab testing, by R.E.D. Laboratories in Belgium. This test has a high sensitivity for the Borrelia infections that cause Lyme disease or relapsing fever. The results were published in a peer-reviewed article in 2021. Induced Native Phage Therapy was able to wipe out 100% of Borrelia strains in 92% of patients.⁴

LE: What potential do you see for Induced Native Phage Therapy?

Dr. Jernigan: We have already gone way beyond targeting bacterial infections. We can target every type of microbe, including mold, yeast, mycobacteria, mycoplasma, parasites, and even viruses, since within the healthy human body there are bacteriophages, mycophages, and virophages. Induced Native Phage Therapy can address many infections at once and be used in the toughest multi-drug-resistant infections.

LE: What specific conditions do you treat with Induced Native Phage Therapy?

Dr. Jernigan: At the Biologix Center, we see virtually any illness no one else can figure out. Many patients have musculoskeletal or neuromuscular symptoms ranging from pain syndromes to metabolic issues. With our multi-disciplinary approach, we have developed programs of care that I call Synergy Healing. Synergy Healing is combining a wide range of synergistic treatments and therapies to address everything we can find that has gone wrong in a person's body. From this treatment philosophy, illness by any name/diagnosis can have the best chance of being eliminated by the only thing that can ever heal you, your body.

We see many people with symptoms from a wide range of previously diagnosed named conditions, such as Lyme disease, thyroid issues, pain syndromes, heart and circulatory problems, and the list could go on forever. We are never intimidated by the fact that a person has already exhausted all medical and natural options, since most of the world in medicine is practicing from the same rule book. We get to win more cases because of our testing and treatment innovations and our treatment philosophy. The patient's body is the carpenter. The remedies and treatments are the tools and information that the carpenter must use to do the repair and restoration. Even phage therapy is just a tool in the toolbox of the doctor. However, now the task of your health care team is to help the body heal the many areas that have been damaged by the infections…only then will true, lasting health be achieved. I would recommend your readers go to my website and read the article, "Phages: Setting Healthy Expectations."⁵

Every chronic illness has what I call Multi-Microbial Activation Syndrome. Many people like to think of an illness as being caused by one type of infection, but with Biospectral Emission Sequence testing we can see that there are many different microbes at the same time acting out in cases of chronic illness of any type.

LE: What's a typical treatment like?

Dr. Jernigan: A typical program is two weeks of all-inclusive care. The patient is in the clinic for four to six hours every day seeing the doctor and doing therapies. After that, the patient is given customized formulas and supplements to continue healing at home, with virtual doctor consultations in case they need to return or if the doctor needs to modify what a person is taking. The goal is to get a person to where they don't need to take anything to manage symptoms, since the causes of their illness are gone.

LE: Will Induced Native Phage Therapy be widely available to physicians?

Dr. Jernigan: Yes, there are already a dozen broad-spectrum but targeted phage formulations we call Inducen Formulations. The plan is to get these in the hands of healthcare professionals by the end of 2024.

If you have any questions on the scientific content of this article, please call a Life Extension Wellness Specialist at 1-866-864-3027.

References

1. Available at: https://biologixcenter.com/. Accessed July 19, 2024.
2. Lin DM, Koskella B, Lin HC. Phage therapy: An alternative to antibiotics in the age of multi-drug resistance. World J Gastrointest Pharmacol Ther. 2017;8(3):162-73.
3. Available at: https://biologixcenter.com/lyme-disease-bgx/. Accessed July 18, 2024.
4. Jernigan DA, Hart MC, Dodd KK, et al. Induced Native Phage Therapy for the Treatment of Lyme Disease and Relaps- ing Fever: A Retrospective Review of First 14 Months in One Clinic. Cureus. 2021;13(11):e20014.
5. Available at: https://biologixcenter.com/inpt-phage-therapy/phages-setting-healthy-expectations/. Accessed July 22, 2024.