Presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has made numerous claims about his well being through the years, however probably the most surprising got here Wednesday when it was revealed that Kennedy as soon as insisted {that a} worm died in 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 help his declare that well being points had diminished 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 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 New York-Presbyterian Hospital advised Kennedy he believed the scans revealed a useless parasite in his mind.
The abnormality that was seen on his scans “was brought on by 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 concern has prompted widespread dialog in regards to the existence of mind worms, in addition to the candidate’s health for workplace.
There are a number of parasites that may do injury within the human mind, however the commonest 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.
The tapeworm’s eggs are discovered within the feces of an contaminated particular person, they usually can 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 will ingest the eggs as nicely.
As soon as swallowed, the eggs discover their manner into skeletal muscle mass or different tissues, the place they type cysts and trigger the illness often called cysticercosis.
In keeping with medical specialists, the situation Kennedy described feels like neurocysticercosis, a illness that happens when pork tapeworm larvae turn out to be enclosed in a cyst within the human mind.
T. solium cysts can even 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, but it surely’s tough to know for positive as a result of infections sometimes lead to nothing worse than delicate digestive issues, similar to belly ache or an upset abdomen.
If the cysts discover a residence within the small gut, they will grow to be grownup tapeworms in about two months’ time. Their eggs may then unfold and trigger neurocysticercosis.
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. Bailey didn’t look at Kennedy, however made his dedication based mostly on the main points revealed in regards to the case.
“It could actually 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.”
These signs can embody seizures, headache, stroke, irritation and different cognitive or psychological well being points, based on the Middle for Illness Management and Prevention.
The parasite isn’t regularly seen in the US. There are roughly 2,000 hospitalizations for neurocysticercosis yearly in the US, based on the journal Rising Infectious Illnesses.
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 constantly accessible,” Bailey stated. “It’s not one thing typical vacationers ought to be involved about.”
Kennedy advised the New York Instances that docs advised him the cyst they noticed on his scan contained the stays of a parasite. He was not sure the place he might need contracted it, however suspected it may have been throughout a visit he took to South Asia. It didn’t require any remedy, he stated.
Bailey stated there’s no have to 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, often together with steroids. Signs can develop over the course of months or years, Bailey stated.
The presidential candidate says that through the years he’s suffered from atrial fibrillation — the commonest 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 a press release to The Instances that Kennedy traveled extensively in Africa, South America and Asia doing environmental advocacy work and “in a type of places contracted a parasite.”
“The difficulty was resolved greater than 10 years in the past, and he’s in strong 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 symbolize the American Unbiased Social gathering, has been criticized for his excessive views and disinformation about vaccines.
In a podcast in 2021, Kennedy suggested mother and father to “resist” the U.S. Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention’s pointers on vaccinating youngsters. For years he has unfold falsehoods in regards to the effectiveness of vaccines and through a speech in 2022 stated COVID-19 restrictions had been one thing a totalitarian state would do, likening them to circumstances in Nazi Germany.
Instances workers author Religion E. Pinho contributed to this report.