On December 23rd 2013, a friend of mine Nelson Reyes died. He was 28 and suffered from epilepsy. The last I saw him was two weeks ago. The last we hung out was a few months ago at a restaurant in Queens, NY. The first thing I began to think about was his health and condition.
Good friend or not, I grew a habit of avoiding conversations about health or finance. For some reason, the fastest way to piss people off is to talk about health or offer health advice. After studying the field for so long, I figured people would be willing to listen, but it was the opposite. They took health advice as personal criticism, so now when the topic comes up, I just stay out of it.
Unfortunately, I had information that would have been useful for my good friend Nelson, but I avoided the conversation because I rather avoid arguments. The most effective treatment for epilepsy for over 100 years was a ketogenic diet. Nelson had asked me about weight loss before, but I didn’t go into depth. A ketogenic diet would have promoted weight loss and greatly improved his condition.
A good friend is gone and I kept advice from him because it could have possibly annoyed him to the point of killing my reputation with him. Instead, he’s gone. From this point on, I don’t care if I scare away all my friends with health advice. I’d rather give my friends advice and have them not be my friends anymore than just ignore it and have them die.
I’m not going to stand by and see a good friend suffer. I’d rather lose respect in a friend’s eyes than have them die. Everyone that knows me, you’re going to never hear the end of my obsession with health and fitness from this day on. If you don’t like it, just understand my intentions.
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