The uber controversial boxer and social media star, Jake Paul, has admitted to self-medicating in order to prevent long term damage caused by receiving forceful blows to the head.
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An unusual coping mechanism
In a candid interview with Graham Bensinger, Paul said he had taken up the use of psychedelics in the form of toad venom to protect himself from the long-term effects of brain damage as a result of boxing. He also revealed that he had suffered upwards of 20 concussions that date back to his earlier days as a football athlete. Paul explained that his ongoing battle with concussions have got to a point where they have left a mark on some of his motor skills. He explained:
Sometimes in my speech where there’s like every 100th or 200th word I’ll mess up or like slur – which I didn’t do that before.
Possibility of serious brain damage
Further, after getting a brain scan some years ago, it was revealed to him that part of his brain—the frontal lobe, to be exact—was missing a fairly significant amount of blood flow. In the long run, if this continues, this could have serious consequences of basic brain functions such as learning and retaining information. As a result of his proneness to concussions, according to Paul, he has been advised a number of times from his doctors to quit boxing all together to preserve his health.
But rest assured, for those of you out there who are die-hard fans, the 24-year-old has no plans of quitting boxing anytime soon. Instead, he says he has found a way to help him cope, which includes ingesting toad venom—otherwise known as DMT. He said:
Smoking toad [is an] ancient cultural thing [that] sounds crazy and it is but can actually increase the neural activity in your brain.
