New Zealand Nurse Says Hookworms Healed Her Autoimmune Disease

Jane Puckey couldn't climb the stairs in her own home, but now she plays pickleball four times a week thanks to an unusual treatment: hookworms living in her gut.

The Tauranga nurse faced a terrifying diagnosis in the early 2020s. Doctors told her that scleroderma, a chronic autoimmune disease, could leave her significantly disabled or even kill her. She also developed arthritis and myositis, another immune disorder that attacked her muscles.

"It sucked the fun right out of life," Jane says. She had severe fatigue and breathing problems that forced her to stop working as a midwife because the job was too physical. Even after becoming a nurse educator, her quality of life remained poor.

Traditional immunosuppressant medications offered little relief. "All of them did very little to control my disease and each of them failed one by one, causing horrible side effects along the way," she recalls. She spent most days lying down, unable to enjoy basic activities.

Then Jane discovered helminths, microscopic parasitic worms being studied as experimental treatments for autoimmune disorders. The theory behind helminth therapy is simple but fascinating: these organisms lived in human guts for thousands of years before modern sanitation eliminated them. Researchers believe reintroducing them might help rebalance the immune system.

Jane started applying hookworms to her skin through a wet pad, allowing them to travel through her flesh into her gut. Unlike other therapeutic helminths that can be swallowed in juice, human hookworms must enter through the skin.

The results came quickly. Within five to six weeks, Jane noticed her hands softening. Over the following year, her energy steadily improved. The marker for muscle cell death in her blood dropped from dangerously high to normal range.

Today, Jane says she's about 90% back to her old self. She can exercise regularly and live the active life she thought she'd lost forever.

Why This Inspires

Jane's story highlights how patients sometimes find hope in unexpected places when conventional medicine reaches its limits. Her willingness to try an experimental approach, combined with research from institutions like New Zealand's Malaghan Institute, shows how innovative thinking can transform lives.

Dr. Tom Mules from the Malaghan Institute has studied helminths for over a decade. He explains that while some people like Jane benefit dramatically, others see no improvement. The treatment remains experimental because researchers haven't identified who will respond positively.

"We couldn't find the definite biomarker or the thing that would predict whether someone would have a good response," Dr. Mules says. He cautions that too many helminths can cause malnutrition and iron deficiency, which is why he doesn't recommend them to everyone without proper medical guidance.

Still, Jane's transformation offers hope for others struggling with autoimmune diseases. From barely climbing stairs to playing sports multiple times weekly, her journey shows that medical breakthroughs sometimes come from looking backward at solutions our ancestors lived with for millennia.