Inside Trump's future health advisor RFK Jr's health battle after he found a worm inside his brain

Robert F. Kennedy Junior (RFK JR) is an American environmental attorney, American politician and member of the politically prominent Kennedy family. Although initially the 70-year-old was running initially as a democrat and later as an independent party in the 2024 USA presidential election, he dropped out in August and instead publicly endorsed former President and republican candidate, Donald Trump.

Upbringing

His father Robert F. Kennedy served as US Attorney General from 1961 to 1964 and was a US Senator for the state of New York before his assassination in 1968.

RFK JR grew up in Washington DC and Massachusetts surrounded by activism and public service as a result of being a member of such a powerful and political family.

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Addiction

RFK JR has been very open in speaking publicly about his past struggles with drug addiction, which started soon after his father’s assassination at the age of 15.

Expelled from two boarding schools, the younger Kennedy successfully graduated from Harvard University and the University of Virginia law school, despite experiencing several relapses. According to Kennedy, the cycle came to an end when he overdosed on a plane to South Dakota and was arrested for the possession of heroin at the age of 29.

Fourteen years of heroin addiction and more than four decades of recovery later, the former presidential candidate claims to have left behind his dependency on “drugs, sex, alcohol or extreme behaviour”.

“As a nation we have failed to address the staggering magnitude of the crisis.” Kennedy said in his documentary “Recovering America”.

Kennedy, 70, has spoken about his addictive personality many times over the years.

“I feel like I was a one-dimensional human being. I was like a collection of appetites that needed to be fed all the time and that becomes like a full-time job,” Kennedy told YouTube host Sage Steele.

“I am careful about using any substance or behaviour that tries to fix the uneasiness, the emptiness and the restlessness inside of myself with something outside,” he said. “And that’s really what the addictive mind is constantly looking for.”

Before dropping out of the 2024 presidential election, Kennedy said that he “absolutely” would hold AA meetings in the White House, if elected.

Work with Trump

The 70-year-old is a notoriously anti-vaccine, claiming that childhood vaccines cause autism, despite the theory being debunked by scientists, and it was previously suggested by Donald Trump that if successful in his 2024 election, he would allow his ally, Kennedy, control over public health policy, giving him the opportunity to carry out his extreme beliefs more effectively and potentially putting him in a position to implement his radical and extreme theories. “Well, I’m going to talk to him and talk to other people, and I’ll make a decision, but he’s a very talented guy and has strong views,” the Republican nominee told NBC.

When asked by NBC about Kennedy’s views about getting rid of water fluoridation, Trump said: “Well, I haven’t talked to him about it yet, but it sounds OK to me. You know, it’s possible.”

The former president also said that he would allow Kennedy to go “wild” on health, food and medicine given his successful re-election in 2024.

Health struggles

In 2010, when Kennedy had been experiencing cognitive challenges, doctors initially thought that he had a brain tumour, but it turned out to be a parasite infection - a pork tapeworm larva in his brain, resulting in health issues.

In a 2012 disposition recently reviewed by the New York Times, the politician revealed that a worm had gotten into his brain “ate a portion of it and then died.” In the deposition, Kennedy reportedly said: “I have cognitive problems, clearly. I have short-term memory loss, and I have longer-term memory loss that affects me.”

Although RFK JR ended up dropping out of the 2024 USA presidential election, given his close proximity to Donald Trump, it is possible that his radical policies may affect future generations of America.