(FORTUNE Small Business) – Doctors strongly recommend that anyone over 40 have an annual comprehensive physical. But as an increasing number of my business friends try to manage the ravages of age with more after-the-fact medications and surgeries and less preventive care, it becomes obvious that they don't heed doctors' free advice. I guess they believe that if it's free, it must be worthless.

It amazes me how successful individuals will throw their time and talent headlong into ensuring that their business assets are top-shelf and profitable, but those same go-getters will allow their most precious personal asset--their body--to rest on the shelf and rust. Why? The most common excuse: We're too busy. Or may be it's that we spend so much time these days dealing with soaring health costs in our businesses that the last thing we want to do is spend more time dealing with doctors.

Not me. Besides my daily dose of physical fitness and three squares of proper nutrition, along with ample water intake, I make it a point to seek annual examinations not only with Dr. Brad Fenton, my GP, but with a bevy of specialists: the cardiologist, ophthalmologist, dermatologist, and dentist.

You're probably saying to yourself, "Pat, you may want to throw in a visit to the shrink to address that paranoia!" It's not paranoia. It's preventive medicine. Feeling great in your body, mind, and spirit requires daily maintenance and regular visits to the doctor's office. Unfortunately many people wait until something goes wrong to seek medical care. That's like waiting to call your accountant and banker after you've broken your loan covenants.

We're all aware of the pain and suffering that can result from untreated ailments like high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and glaucoma. But most people are unaware of the danger that can follow the casual appearance of a rogue freckle. During my last dermatological exam, Dr. Joel Jurnovoy used his trusty magnifying glass to check every inch of my body--stopping at every mole, freckle, and birthmark. I got a little antsy when he lingered around a tiny mole near my nose.

"What's up, Doc?" I asked.

"This mark looks a little irregular," he replied.

"Define irregular," I said, my blood pressure rising.

"Well, the edges are not round and smooth, and it looks a little darker than normal. It might be best if we keep an eye on this one," he said, and appeared to move on.

"Doc, you can keep a really close eye on it," I blurted. "Cut the damn thing out!"

He smiled at my sense of urgency. What he couldn't see was my mind working proactively; I didn't want to have a sense of regret. I had learned a frightening lesson a few years earlier, after my neighbor Bill had a fateful X-ray taken of a small lump that had appeared on his sternum and turned out to be a tumor. To my amazement, he said that the skin cancer started with just a tiny, flat freckle that had appeared between his shoulder blades. Since he had never seen a dermatologist, there was little chance that he'd have noticed the mark. Two years after the initial diagnosis, Bill's body was still racked with deadly tumors.

As for me, I received a call a week after my surgery. My dermatologist said my little mole did show signs of being a basal cell carcinoma. Nowhere near as bad as Bill's malignant melanoma, but it still would require the scalpel to dig a little deeper into my face to ensure that "we get the whole damn thing out."

So give your doctor a call. Now!