Heal thyself. (snapshots).

When you grow up poor, you learn to fix things yourself because it costs too much to hire someone else to do file work. Just ask 61-year-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, everything. Why pay some doctor for that?"

The cholesterol screening, coupled with a recent bout of chest pains, worried Smith. Living most of his life in Gadsden--a quietly shrinking town of about 38,000 nestled in the thick woods of northern Alabama--he'd never maintained the healthiest diet. Years of Southern sausage biscuits, fried foods and gravy had done their damage.

Smith sought answers from conventional medicine. But Smith's doctor--who made sure the "waiting room" earned its name--only gave him some samples of Lipitor, a prescription cholesterol-lowering drug, and rushed to treat the next patient. "Well, I tell you, when I got home, I sat down and read all the side effects of taking the drug," says Smith, "and I just put the instructions back in the box and took it straight back to the doctor and told him to give it to someone else."

Smith then turned to The Prescription for Nutritional Healing, by Phyllis A. Balch and lames F. Balch, for help. He also sought advice from the herbalist ...