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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has experienced a series of health problems in recent years, including an abnormality that he said was caused by a worm that entered his brain and later died, The New York Times reported in Wednesday.
In 2010, Kennedy, now 70, suffered severe memory loss and mental confusion, he said in testimony two years later. According to the Times, he consulted with leading neurologists familiar with the medical history of his uncle, the late Sen. Ted Kennedy, who died of brain cancer in 2009. A New York doctor, after reviewing a CT scan of his brain, said told him that his health problems could be “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate part of it and then died,” Kennedy said in the 2012 deposition, which concerned his divorce from his second wife, Mary Richardson. Kennedy. Robert Kennedy said at the time that his earning power was negatively affected by cognitive issues, the Times reported.
Around the same time, the Times said, he suffered mercury poisoning, which can lead to neurological problems such as loss of peripheral vision, muscle weakness and problems with movement, hearing and speech, as well as memory loss. Kennedy told the newspaper that he recovered from his memory loss and mental confusion and that the parasite did not require treatment.
Additionally, he battled for decades with atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, an irregular heartbeat. He told the Times that it has been more than a decade since he experienced the disease and said he believes he no longer suffers from it.
Kennedy’s campaign refused to provide his medical records to the Times. In a statement to CNN, Stefanie Spear, a spokeswoman for the Kennedy campaign, said she had “traveled extensively in Africa, South America and Asia” as part of her work as an environmental advocate and said she contracted a parasite on one of those trips.
“The problem was resolved more than 10 years ago and he is in good physical and mental health. Questioning Mr. Kennedy’s health is a hilarious suggestion given his competition,” the campaign said, referring to the advanced ages of President Joe Biden, 81, and former President Donald Trump, 77.
In his first public comments after the report’s publication, Kennedy, in a post on social media offered to “eat 5 more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate.”
“I’m confident in the result even with a handicap of six worms”, he joked.
Peter Hotez, an infectious disease expert and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told CNN it’s difficult to fully review Kennedy’s claim without looking at the scans. “It’s an incomplete story,” as he said.
But generally speaking, Hotez said people with pork tapeworm infections of the brain — a condition known as neurocysticercosis — experience seizures more commonly and sometimes need to take anticonvulsant medications for a long time because when the worms die, they form a calcified . cyst in the brain that can cause the brain to release inflammatory chemicals called cytokines.
The link to memory problems and dementia is under study, Hotez said. These symptoms are also associated with mercury poisoning, and Kennedy told the Times that at the time he was diagnosed with this illness, he was consuming large quantities of tuna and sea bass.
“Yes, the worms are not feeding the brain. They are living in the brain,” Dr. Hotez said. Worms obtain nutrients from the body but do not eat brain tissue, he said.
Pork tapeworm infections can be difficult to diagnose because when the worm is alive, it hides from detection and does not show up on tests. It’s more common to find the worm after it has died and left a calcified cyst in the brain, Hotez said.
Kennedy said he changed his lifestyle after these health episodes, including sleeping more, traveling less, reducing his fish intake and undergoing chelation therapy that seeks to expel metals from the body.
During the campaign, Kennedy portrayed himself as vibrant and youthful compared to Biden and Trump, participating in strenuous activities such as skiing and weightlifting. Biden’s doctor, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said in February that there were “no new concerns” about the president’s health revealed in a physical exam and the White House said no cognitive tests were administered because O’Connor did not consider it necessary. Trump’s campaign late last year released a letter that made broad statements about his health — including claims that the former president is in “excellent” health and that his cognitive exams “were exceptional” — but did not include information about the types of tests Trump took or what the results were.
Kennedy’s views on personal health, including his long-standing skepticism toward certain vaccines, have been a distinguishing feature of his public image. He has disputed suggestions that he is “anti-vaccine,” even though he is the founder of Children’s Health Defense, a group that has been accused of spreading falsehoods about vaccines.
This story has been updated with additional details and reaction.
CNN’s Brenda Goodman and Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.
