In 2010, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was experiencing memory loss and mental fogginess so severe that a friend grew concerned he might have a brain tumor. Mr. Kennedy said he consulted several of the country’s top neurologists, many of whom had either treated or spoken to his uncle, Senator Edward M. Kennedy, before his death the previous year of brain cancer.
Several doctors noticed a dark spot on the younger Mr. Kennedy’s brain scans and concluded that he had a tumor, he said in a 2012 deposition reviewed by The New York Times. Mr. Kennedy was immediately scheduled for a procedure at Duke University Medical Center by the same surgeon who had operated on his uncle, he said.
While packing for the trip, he said, he received a call from a doctor at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital who had a different opinion: Mr. Kennedy, he believed, had a dead parasite in his head.
The doctor believed that the abnormality seen on his scans “was caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” Mr. Kennedy said in the deposition...
About the same time he learned of the parasite, he said, he was also diagnosed with mercury poisoning, most likely from ingesting too much fish containing the dangerous heavy metal, which can cause serious neurological issues.
“I have cognitive problems, clearly,” he said in the 2012 deposition. “I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me..”
Dr. Gardner said it was possible a worm would cause memory loss. However, severe memory loss is more often associated with another health scare Mr. Kennedy said he had at the time: mercury poisoning.
Mr. Kennedy said he was then subsisting on a diet heavy on predatory fish, notably tuna and perch, both known to have elevated mercury levels. In the interview with The Times, he said that he had experienced “severe brain fog” and had trouble retrieving words. Mr. Kennedy, an environmental lawyer who has railed against the dangers of mercury contamination in fish from coal-fired power plants, had his blood tested.
He said the tests showed his mercury levels were 10 times what the Environmental Protection Agency considers safe.
At the time, Mr. Kennedy also was a few years into his crusade against thimerosal, a mercury-containing preservative used in some vaccines. He is a longtime vaccine skeptic who has falsely linked childhood inoculations to a rise in autism, as well as to other medical conditions.
In the interview, Mr. Kennedy said he was certain his diet had caused the poisoning. “I loved tuna fish sandwiches. I ate them all the time,” he said.
The Times described Mr. Kennedy’s symptoms to Elsie Sunderland, an environmental chemist at Harvard who has not spoken to Mr. Kennedy and responded generally about the condition.
She said the mercury levels that Mr. Kennedy described were high, but not surprising for someone consuming that quantity and type of seafood.
Mr. Kennedy said he made changes after these two health scares, including getting more sleep, traveling less and reducing his fish intake.
He also underwent chelation therapy, a treatment that binds to metals in the body so they can be expelled. It is generally given to people contaminated by metals, such as lead and zinc, in industrial accidents. Dr. Sunderland said that when mercury poisoning is clearly diet-related, she would simply recommend that the person stop eating fish. But another doctor who spoke to The Times said she would advise chelation therapy for the levels Mr. Kennedy said he had."
MORE AT:
The New York Times
R.F.K. Jr. Says Doctors Found a Dead Worm in His Brain
The presidential candidate has faced previously undisclosed health issues, including a parasite that he said ate part of his brain.
May 8, 2024 Updated 2:21 p.m. ET
“Over the decades, the water quality has improved, he said, but “unfortunately with PCBs and mercury, we are paying for our sins of the past."
Lenny Lichvar suggests that to have health issues from eating fish, a significant amount of the protein would need to be consumed.
He's the president of Pennsylvania Trout Unlimited.
“To have real health impairments from eating fish, you have to eat a significant amount of them,” he said.
"All the preservatives and everything else they put in the food you buy at the grocery store might be more of a detriment to you than a handful of fish you eat in Pennsylvania, unless there’s an advisory out by the state that you don’t eat fish in a certain area,” Lichvar said.”
MORE AT:
Eire Times News
How safe is it to eat fish caught in Pennsylvania waters?
Brian Whipkey
Erie Times-News
PENNSYLVANIA FISH CONSUMPTION ADVISORY
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