US presidential candidate Robert F Kennedy is in good health, people managing his campaign have said in response to a report by The New York Times on Wednesday which said he had suffered from a brain parasite as well as heart problems and mercury poisoning.
Calling questions over his health “hilarious,” as his competition includes Joe Biden, 81, and Donald Trump, 77, people associated with his campaign said Kennedy’s travels to Africa, South America, and Asia as an environmental advocate could have been the reason he contracted a parasite.
Kennedy, and environmental lawyer and a member of the famous Kennedy clan, is the son of late John F Kennedy's brother Robert.
He is running as an independent candidate and has made health an important part of his campaign posts, often posting videos of himself on X in which he's seen shirtless, doing pushups .
The New York Times report was based on a divorce deposition in 2012 in which Kennedy was said to have experienced severe memory loss and brain fog in 2010.
Doctors had said then, according to Kennedy, that his health problems could have been “caused by a worm that got into my brain and ate a portion of it and then died,” meant perhaps to be a simple explanation of the harm caused by parasites as worms do not eat brain tissue, experts say.
The campaign said that the issue was resolved more than 10 years ago, and that Kennedy, now 70, “is in robust physical and mental health."
Kennedy had also said in the deposition that he had high levels of mercury in his blood because of a diet heavy in tuna fish, and had been treated for the problem.
The former heroin addict who contracted hepatitic C from intravenous drug use, also suffered from abnormal heartbeat, a condition known as atrial fibrillation.
He says he has not had an episode for a decade.
On the competition, he posted recently on X, "I offer to eat 5 more brain worms and still beat President Trump and President Biden in a debate."
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