Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made numerous claims about his well being through the years, 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 Instances, was made throughout divorce proceedings from his second spouse, Mary Richardson Kennedy, and was meant to assist his declare that well being points had diminished his incomes potential.
Kennedy reportedly disclosed the ailment throughout a courtroom deposition, saying that in 2010 he was experiencing reminiscence loss and extreme psychological fogginess. He stated he consulted with a number of neurologists who examined mind scans and suspected he had a mind tumor, and he was scheduled to endure surgical procedure.
However then a physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital advised Kennedy he believed the scans revealed the remnants of a useless parasite.
The abnormality in his scans “was attributable to a worm that bought into my mind and ate a portion of it after which died,” the article reported Kennedy as saying within the 2012 deposition.
No medical proof has been supplied to again up the candidate’s claims, however the challenge 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 submit on X on Wednesday saying that he might “eat 5 extra mind worms and nonetheless beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate.” He added in one other submit, “I really feel assured of the end result even with a six-worm handicap.”
There are a number of parasites that may do harm within the human mind, however the most typical within the Americas is the pork tapeworm, Taenia solium. Within the intestines, the worm can develop to 2 to 7 meters in size. Although 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 / Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention)
A number of medical consultants advised The Instances that the situation Kennedy described feels like neurocysticercosis, a parasitic an infection attributable to the larval type of the pork tapeworm. These medical doctors haven’t handled Kennedy and have been talking usually.
Relying 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. Reminiscence loss and cognitive issues of the type Kennedy described in his deposition could be uncommon, stated Dr. Edward Jones-Lopez, an infectious-disease specialist with Keck Drugs of USC.
“It will be uncommon for the parasite to trigger reminiscence loss simply as an remoted symptom,” he stated.
Kennedy’s description of the worm dying after it “ate a portion” of his mind can also be a “misnomer” when talking about neurocysticercosis, Jones-Lopez stated. The parasite dies earlier than maturing into an animal able to consuming something.
The tapeworm’s eggs are discovered within the feces of an contaminated particular person, and they’ll unfold to different hosts who devour meals or water contaminated by the feces. If somebody touches a contaminated floor after which places their fingers of their mouth with out washing their palms, they’ll ingest the eggs as effectively.
As soon as swallowed, the eggs discover their method into skeletal muscle groups or different tissues, the place they kind cysts and trigger the illness often known as cysticercosis.
“Within the mind it’s really larvae (not the mature worm itself) that varieties cysts, which when surgeons excise and provides to us pathologists, is usually useless,” wrote Dr. William Yong, a pathologist specializing in neuropathology at UC Irvine. “They solely kind grownup tapeworms within the intestines. Anyplace else within the physique they kind these larval cysts that finally die, degenerate and calcify.”
T. solium cysts may enter the digestive system in contaminated pork that’s uncooked or undercooked, inflicting a situation referred to as taeniasis. The CDC estimates there are most likely fewer than 1,000 circumstances a 12 months, nevertheless it’s troublesome to know for positive as a result of infections sometimes lead to nothing worse than delicate digestive issues, akin to stomach ache or an upset abdomen.
If the cysts discover a dwelling within the small gut, they’ll grow to be 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 medical doctors to conclude that the majority circumstances of neurocysticercosis are both asymptomatic or produce solely delicate signs. A single affected person might have tons of of those calcifications of their mind, stated Dr. Diana Vargas, a neurologist and neuroimmunologist on the Emory College College of Drugs.
The parasite is often seen in underdeveloped nations the place pigs are available in contact with human feces, stated Dr. Charles Bailey, the medical director for an infection prevention at Windfall St. Joseph and Windfall Mission hospitals.
“It may go from the GI tract and has a propensity emigrate into the mind,” Bailey stated. “It may be asymptomatic till the parasite dies. Normally when it dies it triggers some native inflammatory response which causes swelling in that specific space that may result in signs.”
The parasite is endemic in Central and South America, in addition to some areas of Asia and Africa, Vargas stated. It isn’t often seen in the US, however there are nonetheless tons of of hospitalizations per 12 months, she stated.
Bailey stated in his four-decade profession he’s seen 10 to 12 circumstances, principally from individuals who have lived in Latin America.
“A lot of the circumstances I’ve seen haven’t been in vacationers. They’re individuals who have lived in that a part of the world most or all of their life and for whom high-quality or totally cooked meat may not have been persistently obtainable,” Bailey stated. “It’s not one thing typical vacationers must be involved about.”
Kennedy advised the New York Instances that medical doctors advised him the cyst they noticed on his scan contained the stays of a parasite. He was uncertain the place he might need contracted it, however suspected it might have been throughout a visit he took to South Asia. It didn’t require any remedy, he stated.
Bailey stated there’s no must take away the parasite surgically until 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 might change into life-threatening.
It may take wherever from a number of months to as much as 4 years for signs to develop, Vargas stated.
Different sorts of parasites that may lodge within the mind embrace 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 sometimes assaults the liver, Jones-Lopez stated.
In comparison with T. solium, the opposite parasites “are so extraordinarily uncommon,” Vargas stated.
The presidential candidate says that through the years he’s suffered from atrial fibrillation — the most typical 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 stated in an announcement to The Instances that Kennedy traveled extensively in Africa, South America and Asia doing environmental advocacy work and “in a kind of places contracted a parasite.”
“The difficulty was resolved greater than 10 years in the past, and he’s in sturdy bodily and psychological well being,” she stated. “Questioning Mr. Kennedy’s well being is a hilarious suggestion, given his competitors.”
Kennedy, who’s working to characterize the American Unbiased Get together, 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. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s tips on vaccinating kids. For years he has unfold falsehoods in regards to the effectiveness of vaccines and through a speech in 2022 stated COVID-19 restrictions have been one thing a totalitarian state would do, likening them to situations in Nazi Germany.
Instances workers author Religion E. Pinho contributed to this report.
