By Steve Dorfman

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Updated: 6:27 p.m. Monday, Dec. 27, 2010

Posted: 4:49 p.m. Monday, Dec. 27, 2010

I’ve never made a New Year’s resolution.

Oh, I’ve resolved to alter my behavior countless times over the years (sometimes even successfully!) – but never done so to coincide with Jan. 1.

A Tuesday night in April a Saturday morning in July once the urge strikes, I’m too impatient to wait for the clean slate of a new week, much less a fresh calendar.

But certain unforeseen developments during the past few months regarding my own health have precipitated a reassessment of many heretofore established habits.

If you’ve followed this space for the past year, you know that I concentrate mostly on the ways in which we can all maximize our health, fitness and overall well-being.

In February, we visited a pricey, concierge doctor’s office that specializes in "age-management" medicine; in March, we discovered a new way to enjoy an old game with a Cardio Tennis clinic; in May, it was the spiritual, emotional and physical benefits derived from a session with one of the world’s leading reflexologists; and, in September, we learned all about functional fitness training at a Boca Raton facility whose owner is one of the field’s recognized pioneers.

However, like a lot of my fellow fitness enthusiasts, I rarely give much thought to illness or disease. I guess we’ve always figured that, if we do right by our bodies, they’ll do right by us. and for the most part, they do.

And when our bodies attack us from the inside – as mine recently has with a non-life-threatening blood condition – there’s a disconcerting loss of control.

We’re so used to being the masters of our physical beings that we’re not conditioned to dealing with our bodies not properly functioning internally.

Even though I wasn’t diagnosed with my disorder until September (and began receiving regular hematological treatments shortly thereafter), truth be told, I had plenty of prior warning.

But I ignored the signals for many months.

I figured that if I just muddled through my initial symptoms (which included overwhelming fatigue, shortness of breath, light-headedness and frequent fevers), they’d eventually disappear as mysteriously as they came.

Doing right by ‘my boys’

I don’t have children, but my two furry, feline roomies – Tanner and Charlie – might as well be. Thus, I always keep a close eye on how they’re feeling. if either ever displayed symptoms comparable to what I had been experiencing, we would have been at the veterinarian’s office the next morning, deadlines be damned.

Yet I couldn’t be troubled to treat myself the same way. In addition to doing myself a disservice, I also wasn’t doing right by "my boys," who depend on me for sustenance, shelter – and comfy body parts on which to rest their slumbering heads.

That’s why, just in time for New Year’s, I’m breaking with tradition and listing a solitary resolution: In 2011 and beyond, should I begin feeling poorly for more than a few days (a week – tops!), my litmus test for seeing a doctor will be this: would I insist that a loved one see a doctor if he or she were experiencing similar symptoms?

Please, feel free to adopt this one yourself.

Not only is it a good safety measure. what I like most is that – best-case scenario – it’s a resolution we’ll never have to keep.

Have a question/comment for Steve? E-mail him at or write to: Boomer Health, the Palm Beach Post, 2751 S. Dixie Highway, West Palm Beach, FL 33405.