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Independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has experienced a number of health problems in recent years, including an abnormality that he said was caused by a worm, The New York Times reported Wednesday. What happened happened which entered his brain and then he died.
In 2010, Kennedy, now 70, experienced severe memory loss and mental fog, he said in a statement two years later. According to the Times, he consulted top neurologists familiar with the medical history of his uncle, the late Senator Ted Kennedy, who died of brain cancer in 2009. A New York doctor, after reviewing his brain scans, told him that his health issues “may have been caused by a worm that got into my brain and took out part of it,” Kennedy said in a 2012 statement. Eaten and then died,” Kennedy said in a 2012 statement, which was related to his divorce from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. As the Times reported, Robert Kennedy said at the time that his earning power was due to cognitive issues. Has been negatively affected by.
Around the same time, the Times said, he suffered from mercury poisoning, which can cause neurological problems such as loss of peripheral vision, muscle weakness and loss of movement, hearing and speech as well as memory. Kennedy told the newspaper that he had recovered from memory loss and brain fog and that the parasite did not require treatment.
Additionally, he has battled atrial fibrillation, or A-fib, an irregular heartbeat, for decades. He told the Times that it has been more than a decade since he experienced the condition and that he believes he no longer suffers from it.
Kennedy’s campaign declined to provide his medical records to the Times. In a statement to CNN, Kennedy campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Speyer said that he “traveled extensively in Africa, South America and Asia” as part of his work as an environmental advocate and said that those trips In one of them he became infected with a parasite.
“The issue was resolved more than 10 years ago and he is in strong physical and mental health. Questioning Mr. Kennedy’s health, given his competition, is a ridiculous suggestion,” 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 was published, Kennedy social media post “Offered to eat 5 more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate.”
“Despite the six-worm handicap I am confident of the result,” he joked.
Dr. Peter Hotez, an infectious disease expert and dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, told CNN that it is difficult to fully review Kennedy’s claim without seeing the scans. As he said, “It’s an incomplete story.”
But, generally speaking, Hotez said that people who have pork tapeworm infection in their brains—a condition known as neurocysticercosis—usually experience seizures and sometimes prolonged seizures. Antibiotics need to be taken because when the worms die, they form a calcification. Cysts in the brain that can cause inflammatory chemicals called cytokines to be released into the brain.
The connection between memory problems and dementia is being studied, Hotez said. Those symptoms have also been linked to mercury poisoning, and Kennedy told the Times that at the time he was diagnosed with that disease, he was consuming high amounts of tuna and perch.
“Yes, worms are not feeding the brain. They’re living in the brain,” Dr. Hotez said. The worms get nutrients from the body, he said, but they aren’t eating brain tissue.
Pig tapeworm infection can be difficult to diagnose because when the worm is alive it protects itself from detection and does not show up on scans. It’s common to find the worm after it dies and leaves a calcified cyst in the brain, Hotez said.
Kennedy said he changed his lifestyle after these health events, including getting more sleep, traveling less, reducing his fish intake and taking chelation therapy that attempts to flush out metals in the body.
During the campaign, Kennedy has portrayed herself as vibrant and youthful compared to Biden and Trump by engaging in vigorous activities such as skiing and weight lifting. Biden’s physician, Dr. Kevin O’Connor, said in February that an investigation into the president’s health revealed “no new concerns” and the White House said no cognitive testing was performed because O’Connor Didn’t feel necessary. Trump’s campaign released a letter late last year that made sweeping statements about his health – including claims that the former president is in “excellent” health and that his cognitive tests were “exceptional” – But it did not include information about the types of tests Trump would undergo. Taken or what were the results.
Kennedy’s views on personal health, including his long-standing skepticism about certain vaccines, have been a distinctive feature of his public image. He has disputed suggestions that he is “anti-vaccine”, although he is the founder of Children’s Health Defense, a group that has been accused of spreading lies about vaccines.
This story has been updated with additional details and response.
CNN’s Brenda Goodman and Aaron Pellish contributed to this report.
