Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made numerous claims about his well being over time, however essentially the most surprising got here Wednesday when it was revealed that Kennedy as soon as insisted that a worm ate a portion of his mind over a decade in the past.
Kennedy’s assertion, which was reported by the New York Times, was made throughout divorce proceedings from his second spouse, Mary Richardson Kennedy, and was supposed to help his declare that well being points had lowered his incomes potential.
Kennedy reportedly disclosed the ailment throughout a court docket deposition, saying that in 2010 he was experiencing reminiscence loss and extreme psychological fogginess. He mentioned he consulted with a number of neurologists who examined mind scans and suspected he had a mind tumor, and he was scheduled to bear surgical procedure.
But then a physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital advised Kennedy he believed the scans revealed the remnants of a dead parasite.
The abnormality in his scans “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” the article reported Kennedy as saying in the 2012 deposition.
No medical proof has been supplied to again up the candidate’s claims, however the subject has prompted widespread dialog in regards to the existence of mind worms, in addition to the candidate’s health for workplace.
Kennedy addressed the difficulty in a tongue-and-cheek post on X on Wednesday saying that he might “eat 5 more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate.” He added in another post, “I feel confident of the result even with a six-worm handicap.”
There are a number of parasites that may do harm in the human mind, however the most common in the Americas is the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium. In the intestines, the worm can develop to 2 to 7 meters in size. Though its eggs can migrate from the intestines to tissues all through the physique, in all different organs the larvae dies earlier than reaching maturity.
A photomicrograph of the parasitic pork tapeworm Taenia solium.
(Dr. Mae Melvin / Centers for Disease Control and Prevention)
Multiple medical consultants advised The Times that the situation Kennedy described seems like neurocysticercosis, a parasitic an infection attributable to the larval type of the pork tapeworm. Those docs haven’t handled Kennedy and had been talking usually.
Depending on the place the parasite lodges itself in or across the mind, the affected person might both be completely asymptomatic or expertise complications and seizures. Memory loss and cognitive issues of the type Kennedy described in his deposition could be uncommon, mentioned Dr. Edward Jones-Lopez, an infectious-disease specialist with Keck Medicine of USC.
“It would be unusual for the parasite to cause memory loss just as an isolated symptom,” he mentioned.
Kennedy’s description of the worm dying after it “ate a portion” of his mind can be a “misnomer” when talking about neurocysticercosis, Jones-Lopez mentioned. The parasite dies earlier than maturing into an animal able to consuming something.
The tapeworm’s eggs are discovered in the feces of an contaminated individual, and they can spread to other hosts who devour meals or water contaminated by the feces. If somebody touches a contaminated floor and then places their fingers in their mouth with out washing their arms, they will ingest the eggs as effectively.
Once swallowed, the eggs discover their means into skeletal muscle tissue or different tissues, the place they form cysts and trigger the illness often known as cysticercosis.
“In the brain it is actually larvae (not the mature worm itself) that forms cysts, which when surgeons excise and give to us pathologists, is often dead,” wrote Dr. William Yong, a pathologist specializing in neuropathology at UC Irvine. “They only form adult tapeworms in the intestines. Anywhere else in the body they form these larval cysts that ultimately die, degenerate and calcify.”
T. solium cysts may also enter the digestive system in contaminated pork that’s uncooked or undercooked, inflicting a situation referred to as taeniasis. The CDC estimates there are in all probability fewer than 1,000 circumstances a 12 months, nevertheless it’s tough to know for certain as a result of infections usually consequence in nothing worse than gentle digestive issues, reminiscent of stomach ache or an upset abdomen.
If the cysts discover a residence in the small gut, they will turn into grownup tapeworms in about two months’ time. Their eggs might then unfold and trigger neurocysticercosis.
Calcified proof of previous infections has been turning up on the mind scans of sufferers who’ve had imaging taken for different causes, main docs to conclude that almost all circumstances of neurocysticercosis are both asymptomatic or produce solely gentle signs. A single affected person might have a whole lot of these calcifications in their mind, mentioned Dr. Diana Vargas, a neurologist and neuroimmunologist on the Emory University School of Medicine.
The parasite is often seen in underdeveloped international locations the place pigs come in contact with human feces, mentioned Dr. Charles Bailey, the medical director for an infection prevention at Providence St. Joseph and Providence Mission hospitals.
“It can go from the GI tract and has a propensity to migrate into the brain,” Bailey mentioned. “It can be asymptomatic until the parasite dies. Usually when it dies it triggers some local inflammatory response which causes swelling in that particular area that can lead to symptoms.”
The parasite is endemic in Central and South America, in addition to some areas of Asia and Africa, Vargas mentioned. It isn’t regularly seen in the United States, however there are nonetheless a whole lot of hospitalizations per 12 months, she mentioned.
Bailey mentioned in his four-decade profession he’s seen 10 to 12 circumstances, largely from individuals who have lived in Latin America.
“Most of the cases I’ve seen have not been in travelers. They’re people who have lived in that part of the world most or all of their life and for whom high-quality or fully cooked meat might not have been consistently available,” Bailey mentioned. “It’s not something typical tourists should be concerned about.”
Kennedy advised the New York Times that docs advised him the cyst they noticed on his scan contained the stays of a parasite. He was not sure the place he may need contracted it, however suspected it might have been throughout a journey he took to South Asia. It didn’t require any remedy, he mentioned.
Bailey mentioned there’s no must take away the parasite surgically except it’s positioned in an space of the mind the place it’s inflicting issues. If it’s found earlier than it dies, it may be handled with oral anti-parasitic medicines, normally together with steroids to regulate swelling and irritation that would change into life-threatening.
It can take wherever from a number of months to as much as 4 years for signs to develop, Vargas mentioned.
Other kinds of parasites that may lodge in the mind embody schistosoma, a flatworm that burrows by means of the pores and skin however doesn’t kind the signature cyst that neurocysticercosis does, or echinococcus, which might infect the mind however much more usually assaults the liver, Jones-Lopez mentioned.
Compared to T. solium, the opposite parasites “are so extremely rare,” Vargas mentioned.
The presidential candidate says that over time he’s suffered from atrial fibrillation — essentially the most common kind of heartbeat abnormality — mercury poisoning, hepatitis C from intravenous drug use in his youth and spasmodic dysphonia, a neurological dysfunction that causes his vocal cords to squeeze too shut collectively.
Kennedy’s marketing campaign press secretary Stefanie Spear mentioned in a assertion to The Times that Kennedy traveled extensively in Africa, South America and Asia doing environmental advocacy work and “in one of those locations contracted a parasite.”
“The issue was resolved more than 10 years ago, and he is in robust physical and mental health,” she mentioned. “Questioning Mr. Kennedy’s health is a hilarious suggestion, given his competition.”
Kennedy, who’s working to signify the American Independent Party, has been criticized for his excessive views and disinformation about vaccines.
In a podcast in 2021, Kennedy suggested dad and mom to “resist” the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s tips on vaccinating youngsters. For years he has unfold falsehoods in regards to the effectiveness of vaccines and throughout a speech in 2022 mentioned COVID-19 restrictions had been one thing a totalitarian state would do, likening them to conditions in Nazi Germany.
Times workers author Faith E. Pinho contributed to this report.