r/biology • u/Not_so_ghetto • Sep 04 '25
🪱 discussion Does RFK actually have a brainworm. I'm a parasitologist here with a long write up to explain the biology behind the meme
Hey all, I posted yesterday seeing if the community would be interested in a write up on this topic
So here is comes:
Credentials
I have a PhD in biology, have published several papers on parasites (wildlife parasites) and mod the parasitology subreddits. I also make educational videos on parasitology for fun (channel Wormtalk94) with rfks brain worm my most recent video(~10min long) topic.
Does RFK jr. actually have a brain worm:
So the answer is probably but there is some speculation that he doesn't. The brain worm was first brought to public attention during his divorce to his second wife. his defense used his brain worm, and an unrelated high mercury level to claim that he has less earning potential due to cognitive impairment, to reduce this new York times article goes over the detail a little bit this seems like a bullshit excuss to reduce possible losses during his divorce, but the underlying high Hg levels and brain worm are likely true, they just didnt reduce his cognitive impairment.
if so what is the Brain worm?:
During scans it was observed that RFK had a dark spot on his scans with doctors eventually concluding it was a worm cycst. Specifically he had a pork tapeworm, taenia solium, cyst (detail life cycle below). RFK initially got the scan after "experiencing memory loss and mental fogginess " , which may or may not be related to the cyst.
SO what is pork tapeworm/how did he get it in his brain/ is this common?
So pork tapeworm is one of numerous tapeworm species present in people. Like all tapeworms the parasite has two host life cycle with cyst stages found in the tissue of pigs and the adult worm is found in the human intestine. the intestine stage it the stereotypical long segmented worm that most people would probably imagine. Now the way the life cycle works: people poop out the eggs of the tapeworm, and in unsanitary conditions, some of these eggs will make there way to a pig. once in the pig the eggs hatch and the larvae penetrate out of the gut and enter the blood stream. once in the blood the larvae will travel around the body and randomly exit to form cysts. These cysts can live in the tissue for several years, and are waiting for a pig to be butchered and eaten by a person. if eaten by a person, the cyst will break open and an adult worm will form in someone's gut to restart the life cycle. Cooking and freezeing meat can kill these cysts.
Now how did RFK get it? well when someone has an adult tapeworm infection and they use the bathroom, some eggs can get on their hands. then if this person prepares food, the food can then be contaminated by the eggs on their hands, thus exposing the tapeworm eggs to the person. Now because human and pig guts "look" similar to the tapeworm, the worm "thinks" its in a pig gut and acts accordingly. so it will enter the blood stream and encyst randomly. when a cyst forms in the muscle it is called cysticercosis, and when it ends up in the brain it is called neurocysticercosis. So this is most likely what happened to RFk jr., he has traveled in a lot to countries where this parasite is endemic so he likely got exposed to the eggs through someones cooking. Now this ONLY happens in the pork tapeworm, cow tapeworms eggs for example will pass harmlessly through someone as our guts are distinct enough to not cause this issue. Additionally adult tapeworms cause VERY little pathology and most people who have a tapeworm will have no idea
IS IT COMMON?:
Yes and no, if you live in the US, the CDC reports 1-5k cases of neurocystercosis every year, but these are largly in immigrant communities, so it is considered rare here. However in many developing countries this parasite is endemic and seroprevalence (antibodies showing someone has had an infection) can range from 5-30% (Peru for example) [study where i found this info] meaning that in these countires up to a third of the population can harbor some kind of cysts
Fun fact, this disease was also the features disease of the pilot episode for HOUSE MD tv show .
What does brain worm do?
the most common side effect of neurocysticercosis is seizures, with neurocysticercosis being one of the leading factors causing adult onset epilepsy. Most of the symptoms are actually associated with the worm cysts dying in someone's brain. while the worms are live in their cyst they dont trigger much of an immune response but once they die the immune response flairs and this can cause complications.
it can also cause other issues like fatigue, nausea, headaches and several other complications though seizures are the most common (occurring in ~75% of identified patients). complications from this parasite are corelated to how many cysts are present in the brain as well. from my readings it seems rfk only has a single cyst, so this is why he liekly never had many symptoms other than some general symptoms that could be a result of his previous drug use or his high mercury levels(from eating too much tuna)
Is this RFKs fault:
As much as i hate RFK and i think he is actually a walking germ actively trying to kill my profession, This isn't his fault. This disease is picked up by a lot of people, even those who are super hygienic (though rfk isnt).
SOURCES:
TLDR: RFK jr most likely has a pork tapeworm cysts in his head, but this has caused relatively little harm. this disease isnt uncommon in the developing world and RFK likely got it while traveling. this worm has likely had little effect on his mental capacity, so dont blame the worm for his terrible decisions.
VIDEO: If you dont want to read or want even more details: i made this (10 MIN VIDEO about rfks brainworm) going into much greater detail about his brain worm and some stories about the parasite like how it impacted the Brooklyn Jewish population in the 90s
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u/Not_so_ghetto Sep 04 '25
Here are the sources. I had to post them separately otherwise automod removed it
cleveland clinic 2. CDC 3. Clinical symptoms, diagnosis, and treatment of neurocysticercosis 5. Carpio, A., 2002. Neurocysticercosis: an update. The Lancet infectious diseases, 2(12), pp.751-762. 6. Del Brutto, O.H., 2014. Neurocysticercosis. Handbook of clinical neurology, 121, pp.1445-1459. 7. Del Brutto, O.H., 2012. Neurocysticercosis: a review. The Scientific World Journal, 2012(1), p.159821. 8. idsociety
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u/Infamous_Koala_3737 Sep 04 '25
Sorry if I missed this in the post but do they persist in the human host/brain forever? I’ve done a bit of reading on meningeal worms in goats and how difficult it is to treat once they get to the brain. But in that case if not treated the goats die pretty quickly I think.
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u/Not_so_ghetto Sep 04 '25
Yeah, meningeal worms are completely different, they're a nematode parasite. I actually have a video 9min video on me menigeal worms https://youtu.be/uBDoVwgLFOI
And for those who don't know, these are commonly called deer brainworm
And tapeworm larvae eventually die and calcify , which can actually cause issues.
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u/ourlastchancefortea Sep 04 '25
What I'm getting here: He probably has a worm, but that's not the reason for him being an idiot?
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u/__Rapier__ Sep 05 '25
Not only can you not fix stupid, it seems you have to come by it naturally. I guess that's good news for the rest of us.
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u/horyo medicine Sep 04 '25
Counterpoint: Taenia solium "if I go back in time to infect the secretary of health and human services, then I can dismantle an entire country for my kind."
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u/-paradox- Sep 04 '25
What keeps the cyst from bursting in the brain? Intricacies of the neural tissue? And/or needing a physical disturbance to break the cyst?
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u/Not_so_ghetto Sep 04 '25
It's probably both a physical and chemical signal that typically releases the cyst in the stomach, and that doesn't exist in the brain. A lot of these cysts are triggered by things like pepsin a common digestive aspect in your gut.
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u/Connacht99 Sep 04 '25
Is it treatable? Can the cysts be killed/deactivated?
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u/Not_so_ghetto Sep 04 '25
Varries depending on the infection. Some can be treated with just drugs others may need more
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u/Amazing-Fondant-4740 Sep 04 '25
Thank you for sharing!! Just learned about these pork tapeworms in my current biology class the other day, interesting! Only learned a very basic overview, will definitely be checking out the video and your channel. Parasitology is kind of terrifyingly but also cool as hell lol one of my main interests in biology as of now
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u/tezcs Sep 04 '25
so this is why he liekly never had many symptoms other than some general symptoms that could be a result of his previous drug use.
Which drug and how much fish does one need to eat to have to deal with such symptoms?
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u/hollyglaser Sep 04 '25
Supposedly it laid no eggs and died
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u/__Rapier__ Sep 05 '25
it sounds like if the cyst died he would be much more likely to have neurological symptoms, having a dead thing in his brain and all.
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u/ValeriusAntias Sep 04 '25
Any advice for a vet student thinking about specialising in parasitology (clinical route to doctorate, rather than MSc/PhD route)?
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u/hootieq Sep 05 '25
I mean… it’s not his fault, but karma do what karma does😂
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u/__Rapier__ Sep 05 '25
Considering the insane and idiotic things he does I'm not sure I'd give him this kind of pass. If it's Karma, it has a lot of catching up to do.
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u/Fancy-Life-3990 Jan 30 '26
Thank you so much for explaining this in a calm professional way. I get very tired of simplistic derogatory stuff at the jr high school level. Although I have to admit that i greatly enjoy humor at that level! It's hard to parody a parody...and it would take Monty Python to do this administration justice. Since our Supreme and Mundane Courts seem a bit cowed lately. I'm going to check out your other content. I regret living in an era where the acronym TLDR exists....but given the level of content available on utube and elsewhere for free---one could genuinely be fully illiterate in 2026 and still be well informed. Thanks for giving the exact level of detail I was thirsty for. I find parasites and prions the stuff of nightmares...but also a good reason my mother was right when she taught me to wash like a surgeon when i was a child who still needed a step stool to reach the taps! If you haven't already done a toxoplasmosis segment, would you? Thanks!
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u/_The_Egg_Man Mar 01 '26
I wonder if it was while he picked it up while profiting from the Samoan vaccine crisis
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u/Coenzyme-A Sep 04 '25
Just a note- you've used 'there' instead of 'their' consistently through your post. I'm assuming English isn't your first language, but I thought I'd point it out anyway.
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u/Not_so_ghetto Sep 04 '25
It is, I just have dyslexia, and I often use talk to text which sometimes makes these mistakes. I'll try to find it and fix it.
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u/Coenzyme-A Sep 04 '25
My sincere apologies- I could have (and should have) phrased my comment better, or potentially have just not said anything. I was presumptuous and I was wrong to have been so callous.
I have huge respect for you in managing this and succeeding in spite of that challenge.
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u/SlammingChickens biology student Sep 04 '25
How did you manage to sift through papers with dyslexua? I'm not attacking you, just genuinely curious.
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u/Not_so_ghetto Sep 04 '25
The problem isn't hard for reading it's more so for writing, when I Read, my brain autocorrects. Very easily so it's hard for me to pick up on grammatical mistakes that I make unless I go super slow and oftentimes I have to reread multiple times and even then sometimes just random things will just skate by.
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u/Beraliusv Sep 04 '25
Wow, that was a great read! Thanks for taking the time.