In 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s memory loss and mental fogginess became so severe that his friend feared he had a brain tumor. Mr. Kennedy said he consulted some of the nation’s top neurologists, many of whom had treated or consulted with his uncle, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, before he died of brain cancer the previous year. It is said that
In a 2012 deposition reviewed by The New York Times, he said he noticed dark spots on young Kennedy’s brain scans and concluded he had a tumor. Kennedy was immediately scheduled for surgery at Duke University Medical Center by the same surgeon who operated on his uncle, he said.
As he was preparing for the trip, he said he received a call from a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital. Doctors had a different opinion. Kennedy said he believed he had a dead parasite in his head.
Kennedy said in a deposition that he believed the abnormalities seen in the scans were “caused by an insect that entered the brain and ate part of the brain, causing the death.”
Kennedy, 70, who is currently an independent presidential candidate, believes that his athletic ability and relative youth make him one of the two oldest people ever to seek the White House, President Biden (age 81) and Donald Trump. It portrays him as having an advantage over former President J. Trump. 77. Mr. Kennedy has secured spots on the ballot in Utah, Michigan, Hawaii, and, according to his campaign, California and Delaware. His focused efforts to gain access in more states could put him in an electoral position.
He skied with professional snowboarders and an Olympic gold medalist who called him “The Ripper” as he raced down the mountain, making every effort to look beaming. A camera crew stood by his side as he did weight training shirtless at an outdoor gym in Venice Beach.
Still, over the years he has faced serious health problems that were previously undisclosed, including an apparent parasite.
For decades, Kennedy had suffered from atrial fibrillation, a common abnormal heartbeat that increases the risk of stroke and heart failure. He has been hospitalized at least four times for seizures, but in an interview with the Times this winter he said he had not had a seizure in more than 10 years and believed his symptoms had gone away.
He said he was also diagnosed with mercury poisoning around the same time he learned about the parasite. The cause is probably eating too much fish, which contains dangerous heavy metals that can cause serious neurological problems.
“Obviously, I have a cognitive impairment,” he said in a 2012 deposition. “I have short-term memory loss, and I also have long-term memory loss, and that’s affecting me.”
In an interview with the Times, he said he had recovered from the memory loss and fog, had no aftereffects from the parasite and did not need treatment. Asked last week whether Kennedy’s health problems could impair his fitness to serve as president, Kennedy campaign spokeswoman Stephanie Speer said: “Given the competition, that’s a ridiculous suggestion.” ” he told the Times.
The campaign declined to provide his medical records to the Times. Neither President Biden nor Trump have released his medical records during this campaign. However, the White House released a six-page health summary for President Biden in February. Trump released a three-paragraph statement from his doctor in November.
Doctors who have treated parasitic infections and mercury poisoning say both conditions can cause permanent damage to brain function, but patients may experience only temporary symptoms and make a full recovery. said.
Some of Mr. Kennedy’s health problems were revealed in a 2012 deposition during his divorce from his second wife, Mary Richardson Kennedy. At the time, Kennedy claimed that cognitive conflicts had reduced his earning power.
Mr. Kennedy provided more information, including the apparent parasite, in a telephone interview with the Times shortly before his first state vote. His campaign declined to answer subsequent questions.
Days after the call from NewYork-Presbyterian in 2010, Kennedy said in an interview that he underwent a series of tests. Scans over several weeks showed no changes in that part of the brain, he said.
Doctors eventually concluded that the cysts they saw on the scan contained dead parasites. Kennedy said he did not know the type of parasite or where he may have been infected, but he suspected he contracted the virus while traveling in South Asia.
Several infectious disease experts and neurosurgeons said in separate interviews with the Times that they believed it was likely a porcine tapeworm larva, based on Kennedy’s description. Doctors were not treating Mr. Kennedy and were speaking generally.
Dr. Clinton White, a professor of infectious diseases at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, said the microscopic tapeworm eggs are sticky and easily transmitted from person to person. Once hatched, the larvae travel through the bloodstream and “end up in all kinds of tissues,” he said.
It’s impossible to know, Kennedy said, adding that it’s unlikely the parasite would eat part of the brain. Rather, Dr. White said, it lives on nutrients from the body. Unlike tapeworm larvae in the intestines, tapeworm larvae in the brain remain relatively small, about one-third of an inch.
Some tapeworm larvae can live in the human brain for years without causing problems. Others can wreak havoc, often causing inflammation and starting to die. The most common symptoms are seizures, headaches, and dizziness.
According to the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, about 2,000 people are hospitalized each year in the United States with the condition, known as neurocysticercosis.
When the worms enter the brain, the cells around them calcify, said Scott Gardner, curator of the Manter Institute of Parasitology at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. “And you basically end up with something like a tumor that’s going to exist forever. It’s not going anywhere.”
Dr. Gardner said the worm could cause memory loss. However, the severe memory loss is often linked to another health scare Kennedy had at the time: mercury poisoning.
At the time, Kennedy said he was subsisting on a diet of predatory fish known to have high mercury levels, especially tuna and perch. In an interview with The Times, he said he experienced “severe brain fog” and struggled to regain his speech. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer who has railed against the dangers of mercury contamination of fish from coal-fired power plants, underwent a blood test.
He said tests showed his mercury levels were 10 times higher than what the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe.
At the time, Kennedy had been campaigning for years against thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative used in some vaccines. He has long been a vaccine skeptic and has falsely linked childhood immunizations to an increase in autism and other medical conditions.
Kennedy said in an interview that he believed his diet was the cause of his addiction. “I loved the tuna fish sandwich. I ate it all the time,” he said.
The Times described Mr. Kennedy’s symptoms to Elsie Sunderland, an environmental chemist at Harvard University, who never spoke to Mr. Kennedy and responded generally about his symptoms.
She said the mercury levels described by Kennedy were high but not surprising for people who consume that amount and type of seafood.
Kennedy said he made changes after these two health scares, including sleeping more, traveling less and eating less fish.
He also underwent chelation therapy, a treatment that binds to metals in the body so they can be excreted. It is usually given to people who have been contaminated with metals such as lead or zinc in an industrial accident. Dr Sunderland said if the mercury poisoning was clearly diet-related, he would only advise the person to stop eating fish. But another doctor who spoke to the Times said he would recommend chelation therapy for the levels described by Kennedy.
Kennedy’s heart problems began in college, when his heartbeats became out of sync, he said.
According to reports, in 2001, while in Seattle to give a lecture, he was admitted to the hospital. He was treated and released the next day. He said in his affidavit that he was hospitalized at least three more times from September 2011 to early 2012, including once in Los Angeles. During that visit, his doctor used a defibrillator to shock his heart and reset its rhythm, he said.
He said in his deposition that stress, caffeine and lack of sleep caused the condition. “I feel like I have a bag of bugs in my chest. I’ll feel it as soon as it goes away,” he said.
He also said in his deposition and interview that he contracted hepatitis C from intravenous drug use when he was younger. He said he was receiving treatment and had no residual symptoms from the infection.
Mr. Kennedy has spoken publicly about another major health condition. Paroxysmal dysphonia is a neurological disorder in which the vocal cords are placed too close together, causing the voice to become hoarse and sometimes strained.
He first noticed it when he was 42, he said in a deposition. He said Mr. Kennedy had been earning a lot of money from speaking engagements for many years, but as the situation worsened, his performance deteriorated.
He recently told an interviewer last year that he underwent a procedure available in Japan that implants titanium between the vocal cords to prevent them from contracting involuntarily.