When You Have To Confront Your Friend!

I had a call earlier today from a long time friend that is going to be coming through. Bob has asthma and quizzed me about whether we still had cats or not. More than once he has decided not to stay the night because cats and his asthma just don’t mix.

Now Bob knows I’m a life insurance agent and he knows I’m a bit of a brutal blogger on some subjects, so I am armed with a new study that shows that if my friend would just lose some weight, cats and asthma would likely be less of an issue.

This fairly large study showed that BMI 30 obesity level folks were 66% more likely to have asthma symptoms on a consistent basis than even those who were just considered overweight, BMI 25-29. Bob has always floated between those two categories depending on his level of exercise.

I have another out for my cats though. Bob and I inevitably share several good laughs when we get together, sharing stories and comparing notes on whose kids can mess up better than the other’s. I also found a study about laughter induced asthma. According to this study LIA (yes, they gave it an acronym) is as common or more common than most allergy induced asthma.

From a life insurance standpoint asthma has to meet the same thresholds as many other health issues. The biggest of these are compliance and control. If a person takes the situation seriously and complies with medical direction, the asthma will be well controlled and therefore pose less of a health threat.

Bottom line. Bob is a friend among friends. One of those guys that is always there for you. I hope my advice that he lose the weight once and for all and stop laughing isn’t taken wrong.