The Frugal Physician

The Frugal Physician is actually the name of a book I’ve been writing for the past 20 years; I plan to continue working on in in real time here. The subtitle is: A Cheapskates Guide to Medicine. It has taken me a long time to understand why this is so interesting and so important to me; I’ll explore these as I go along. 

The first is, finally, an utter appreciation of what it means to be middle class. My parents spoke of this often as my siblings and I grew up. It was generally spoken as a positive thing, having to do with a work ethic, living such that one was not dependent on others, etc. Sometimes, it was derogatory, as in ‘so middle class’. This generally referred to leaving personal items on the top of a bureau, particularly bottles of medicine or beauty products. The reality is that the middle class lives within a budget of their own earnings, with little expectation of outside help or anyone to bail them out if they don’t. (for this reason, transitioning from poor to middle class is kind of like going from the frying pan into the fire…)
Our first product, therefore, in the Cheapskates Guide is the Diathrive blood sugar testing products
You can reach them at Diathrive.com. One months supply of blood sugar test strips is $8. I went for broke and got 3 mo supply, which included a free test meter (glucometer). These are useful for anyone living in the US, brought up on the standard, basic, mainstream American Diet (SAD, BAD and MAD). It is the driver of the epidemic of prediabetes, diabetes, insulin resistance etc, which in turn is druving/causing the secondary epidemics of heart disease, dementia, non alcoholic fatty liver disease, and abnormal lipid distribution (dyslipidemia). Therefore, addressing, preventing, ameliorating and curing problems with blood sugar will be the first focus of the Frugal Physician. 
(Without making a vow, I promise that it will be much more entertaining than you would expect!
So, everyone, check out www.Diathrive.com. For those who want an advance glimpse of the next episode of the FP, check out Dr. Jason Fung MD’s talk on YouTube, The Origin of the Obesity Epidemic.

by | Apr 8, 2020 |

Manya B. Helman MD Covid letter 5 Dear all, I hope that this letter finds you well, and that you've found nice routines for this period of handling the Corona virus. Clinic routine is: Em working from home Tues/Thurs, in office working Mon/Wed every other Sun. Simon,...

Covid clinic emails

Covid clinic emails

by | Apr 6, 2020 |

March 16: transition to telemedicine Manya B. Helman MD Corona virus Hello everyone, I want to tell you about what we'll be doing to minimize the risk to all of us from the Corona virus. For the next month, we'll be mainly using telephone or video chat visits...

Covid letter 2

Covid letter 2

by | Apr 5, 2020 |

Manya B. Helman MD Covid letter 2 Hello, Everyone, I hope you are all well, and doing OK staying at home. We will be staffing the office on the same days, with Em working from home on Tues and Thurs, and Marcus working from home Mon and Wed. Simon will work at home on...

Covid letter 3

Covid letter 3

by | Apr 3, 2020 |

Manya B. Helman MD Covid3 Hello, everyone, I hope you are all well. As of today, testing for the virus is still not practical at the level of clinic...Simon will keep checking, but as of now, the test from Quest requires a first test to rule out influenza. I can't see...

Covid letter 4

Covid letter 4

by | Apr 2, 2020 |

Manya B. Helman MD Covid letter 4 Hello, Everyone, We hope all of you are well. Here is the news of the day and the week: telephone and video conference calls seem to be going well. The key to using Atlas for video calls is for both of us to use Chrome (Firefox could...

Covid clinic emails

Coronavirus Safety Suggestions

by | Mar 17, 2020 |

SAFETY SUGGESTIONS 1. If you have a runny nose and sputum, you may only have a common cold. 2. Coronavirus pneumonia is a dry cough with no runny nose. 3. This new virus is not heat-resistant and will be killed by a temperature of just 27 Celsius/80.6 Fahrenheit. 4....

Direct Primary Care Style

Direct Primary Care Style

by | Dec 20, 2019 |

We are so happy that you have joined us, and look forward to learning about you, your health goals and needs. Here is some useful information to help you get used to the “Direct Primary Care” style of medicine, so that you can get the most from your membership! First,...