Jake Paul Says He's Suffering Memory Loss, Slurred Speech Less Than 2 Years Into Boxing Career

Jake Paul says he is suffering from mood swings, memory loss, and slurred speech less than two years into his boxing career.

The 24-year-old YouTuber opened up about his symptoms in an interview with journalist Graham Bensinger ahead of his fight against Tyron Woodley.

"I notice it in conversations with like, with my girlfriend or friends, like, not remembering something that I should be able to remember that happened a couple days ago," he explained.

"Sometimes in my speech, where like every hundredth or two hundredth word, I'll mess up or, like, slur. Which I didn't do that before," he added.

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Paul claimed he's had anywhere between 20 and 30 concussions in his lifetime, though "it's really hard to say" exactly how many. Some of them, he noted, came from playing football as a kid and taking "lots of hard hits," but many of them have come in the short time since Paul began pursuing boxing.

When asked if he is scared by the number of concussions he's sustained, Paul said, "Of course."

Repeated concussions and traumatic brain injuries can lead to CTE, or chronic traumatic encephalopathy, a rare and progressive degenerative brain condition. The disease has been found mostly in athletes who play contact sports, members of the military and victims of physical abuse, though not everyone who experiences repeated concussions goes on to develop CTE. CTE cannot be diagnosed until after death.

The symptoms of CTE include difficulty thinking, depression, impulsive behavior, short-term memory loss and emotional instability. Irritability, aggression, speech difficulties, trouble swallowing and vision problems may also be signs of the condition.

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Before beginning his boxing career, Paul had his brain scanned. According to Paul, a doctor informed the YouTube star that he already was suffering from a lack of blood flow in "certain areas" of his brain due to the concussions he sustained while playing youth football.

Paul said he was told that one of the impacted areas is his frontal lobe — which deals with memory and emotional regulation, among other things.

He returned for another brain scan one year later, "and it was worse." That's when doctors have advised him to quit boxing altogether, he told Bensinger.

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"I think before, it was affecting me more at a rapid pace because I never took it easy," Paul explained. "I was always thrown in there with people who were way, way better than me until I started to slowly get to their level."

To "combat" his symptoms, Paul has admittedly ingested psychedelics such as toad venom.

"I've experimented with that and it's definitely helped out," he told Bensinger, citing "new research and science" he has discovered about the physical impacts of the substance.

Paul will square off against Woodley, 39, on Saturday in a pay-per-view rematch of their August fight.