Heal thyself

When you grow up poor, you learn to fix things yourself because it costs too much to hire someone else to do the work. Just ask 61year-old Andy Smith.

When Smith discovered that homes built by others cost more than he could afford, he decided to build his own house. In 1982, tired of working for other people, he fixed that by turning his hobby-Volkswagen Beetle restoration-into a small business.

Now Smith is fixing himself. It all began in September 2001 when Smith discovered, through a free

screening service, that he had high cholesterol. "I keep an eye out for these free services in the newspaper," he says. "You can get your blood sugar checked, your cholesterol, …