A former adviser to RFK Jnr has broken cover to reveal a chilling theory about the true state of Donald Trump’s health.
Dr Aseem Malhotra suggested the president’s ‘brain fog’ and swollen ankles could be a result of his medications.
The British heart specialist and former advisor to the Make America Healthy Again movement, said the alleged issues may be linked to his use of two common statins, Rosuvastatin and Ezetimibe, rather than being more senior in his years.
He told the Daily Mail: ‘A common side effect of statins, especially as you get older, are fatigue and things like brain fog.
‘That may well explain some of the observations people have made. There’s also research suggesting statins can cause swelling in the ankles.’
Dr Malhotra, who now serves as chief medical and scientific adviser to the new Make Europe Healthy Again movement, said he raised his concerns with two unnamed Trump cabinet ministers, both of whom were ‘very concerned’.
He said they were now considering taking the concerns to the president directly. He also said that, should the president stop taking the statins, it was possible that his supposed issues could clear up within two to three weeks.
Trump, the oldest president ever inaugurated, was declared in ‘exceptional overall health’ by his physician, Dr Sean Barbabella, last week after an impromptu health exam. He also received a flu and Covid booster shot and was told his ‘cardiac age’ was about 14 years younger than his real age.
Dr Aseem Malhotra, a British cardiologist, is pictured above in Birmingham ,UK, on September 6. He has suggested that Trump’s alleged problems may be caused by statins
At his physical in April, he was prescribed Rosuvastatin and Ezetimibe to lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of a heart attack or stroke. Both are taken once daily.
In July, the White House also disclosed that he suffers from chronic venous insufficiency, a condition affecting more than 25million Americans, which can cause ankle swelling.
Trump has been gaffe-prone in recent months, and just this week called Canada’s prime minister Mark Carney a ‘president’ and misstated that his presidency began in 2016. Some observers have pointed to his meandering speeches as signs of cognitive decline, though others note the immense stress and information load of the office.
In response to Dr Malhotra’s comments, White House spokesman Kush Desai said: ‘President Trump is a champion-level golfer with the mental acuity and energy levels that most young people could not fathom having.
‘So-called medical ‘experts’, especially foreign ones with no relevance or involvement in the administration, should stop beclowning themselves and marring their credibility by pitching their idiotic hot takes with Fake News outlets that have nothing better to cover.’
Dr Malhotra, who is set to present his argument at the European Parliament tomorrow during a MEHA launch event, has long argued against the use of statins, the most commonly prescribed drug in the US and taken by about 92million Americans daily.
The stance has drawn him criticism from numerous health bodies, including the British Heart Foundation, which has called his statements ‘misleading and wrong’.
Dr Malhotra continued: ‘I think Donald Trump is a remarkable man, and he is brilliant at what he does. But as a doctor, I want to make sure that he is being treated correctly and that his health is being optimized, including the medications that he is taking.
‘For me, President Trump is almost certainly going to get more harm than good from these statins.’
Trump is pictured above on October 13 listening as Egypt’s president Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi speaks during a summit to end the more than two-year war between Israel and Hamas
He continued: ‘The statin benefit is that they have slightly anti-inflammatory and anti-clotting properties. And I’m not saying don’t take statins.
‘They have a role to play, especially in people who have already established significant heart disease or have had a heart attack already.
‘But basically, most, almost everybody else, gets almost zero benefit and is subject to potential side effects which interfere with their quality of life.’
Mainstream physicians says guidance on whether to take statins should come from patients’ doctors. People are urged not to stop taking statin medications without consulting their doctor.
Common side effects of resuvastatin, suffered by more than one in 100 users, include headaches, nausea and feeling weak or dizzy. But in 2012, the FDA added memory loss to the label as a possible side effect. In the update at the time, it said reports of memory problems in addition to someone taking the statin were ‘rare’ and ‘reversible’ once someone came off the drug.
A 2015 study on 500,000 people prescribed a statin or other cholesterol-lowering drug found that those who took the drugs were nearly four times more likely to report memory loss right after starting the drug compared to those who did not take any kind of medication.
For ezetimibe, common side effects suffered by more than one in 100 people include feeling more tired than usual and stomach or abdominal pain. The drug has not been linked to memory loss or swelling except in allergic reactions.
Statins slash the production of cholesterol in the body, which doctors say helps to slow the build-up of plaque on the walls of arteries or veins, which can become dislodged and block blood vessels, causing a heart attack or stroke.
Trump is pictured above on October 14 on board Air Force One preparing to return to the US from the Middle East
Dr Malhotra questioned whether Trump was getting any benefit from statins, pointing to a 2016 peer-reviewed study in the British Medical Journal, where he is named as one of the authors, which found that people who had high levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol live as long as those with lower levels of the substance.
He also mentioned a second study from 2019, which found that among those aged 75 years or older, such as the president, 446 people in the age group had to take a statin routinely for one to have a benefit.
And a third study, where he was one of the three authors in 2020, which reviewed 35 trials and concluded that statins ‘did not confer any additional benefit’ to patients.
Dr Malhotra also questioned Trump’s use of aspirin, a medication taken by about one in four older adults at least three times a week to prevent a heart attack, saying this also would not benefit the president.
‘With someone like Trump,’ said Dr Malhotra, ‘he is much more likely to suffer a serious bleed, a life-threatening bleed, from being on aspirin than the chances of it preventing him suffering from a heart attack or stroke’.
Dr Malhotra, who has railed against the Covid mRNA vaccines, also said it was not necessary for Trump to receive the shot at his next appointment.