Life Medical Has a Totally New and More Patient-Friendly Website
October 23, 2025
Take a look at our new website. Updated graphics and layout. Easier to navigate. Lots of new information for patients.
A great new feature on the new website is the "MyChart" equivalent available to the clinic and the patient portal.
Patients registering for the portal will have access to their ongoing progress notes, and lab results. This feature is similar to the MyHealth portal utilized by Fairview and other large health providers.
Patients will get notifications about upcoming appointments with providers. They can immediately communicate directly with their providers and staff using the electronic message system within the portal.
We have recently implemented The PRISMA System here at Life Medical. This is an interoperability toolkit that allows for easy data exchange between different medical clinics.
This feature has allowed our clinic access to records from other groups including Fairview, Park Nicollet and Allina. We can now get patient information very quickly without the time-consuming “request for records” process. This makes it much easier for every medical practitioner to provide a higher level of continuity of care. Patients no longer need to hesitate to be seen outside of their current health group, because there are no longer data exchange limitations.
Life Medical is a great clinic because we are always taking steps to improve our patients’ experiences.
Life Medical is proud to welcome Dr. Olga Karchenets! Dr. Karachenets is a board-certified family medicine physician with extensive experience in primary care, preventive health, and chronic disease management. She provides comprehensive care for patients of all ages and has special interests in pulmonology (asthma, COPD), dermatology, women’s health, geriatrics, diabetes, obesity management, and preventive care. She has been honored with multiple professional awards for excellence in patient care.
“We fought hard for it,” says Dr. Jacob Mirman, “and now recreational cannabis is available from non-tribal dispensaries for the first time since legalization in 2023. This is something to celebrate! Medical cannabis is much more effective than any other type of marijuana-based product because it is customized by a pharmacist. Also, medical cannabis is not subject to any taxes which makes it available at a more reasonable price. There are less restrictions for medical patients vs. recreational users, because patients do not have caps on the amount they can purchase or the potency of products. I have treated thousands of patients with medical cannabis and in the vast majority of cases the results have been excellent.”
Message from Dr. Mirman: Thank you for visiting our website to investigate treatments for weight management. Here I will provide you with information to help you decide whether you would like me to help you lose weight. Weight loss is a difficult and often emotional endeavor for many people. Before deciding to let me help you, you should make sure you are comfortable with my views on the issue. Please be sure to read and understand this whole page. We will discuss the following: My philosophy on weight management Basics of my Weight Management Program Our expectations of your participation in the program The basic understanding of obesity and its treatment follow. To be successful in the program you should be in agreement with these principles. Some people, including some weight management professionals, may feel some of these principles are wrong. If you feel any of these principles are wrong, the program will not work for you, and you should seek an alternate approach. If you like the approach and would like to start in the program, please call the office at 952-933-8900 and schedule an appointment. If you have any questions prior to coming in and would like to discuss them with me by phone, I will be more than happy to call you at no charge. I want you to be very comfortable with our process before starting the program. Main principles of my Weight Management Program: Weight management is simple accounting: Human fat is about 3500 cal. per pound of fat tissue. A human needs about 11 cal per pound of weight per day to maintain their weight. E.g. a 200lb person eats about 2200 calories of food per day. If they eat more, they gain weight. If they eat less, they lose weight. Physical exertion will not help most people lose weight. Running a mile burns about 100cal. Running 5 miles a day for 7 days burns about a pound of weight. This amount of exercise is not practical for most obese people. Exercise is very good for your health, it will make you live longer, but it will not help you lose weight. To lose weight you must starve your body, so it uses its fat deposits to maintain its functions, at 11 cal. per pound of your weight per day. We feel your metabolism remains the same throughout the program , no matter how much you starve. Your body does not decrease its energy usage. We can predict exactly how long it will take you to lose any amount of weight based on your daily calorie allowance and your starting weight. No magic. Just simple math. For most people weight loss is not possible without adequate appetite suppression. Hunger is the most powerful drive we possess. It overrides all our other wants and desires. It may be different for different people: some can feel a physical sense of hunger, some get irritable when hungry, some get a headache, but no one can deny their body for a long time. We may exercise the force of will for some period of time and lose some weight, but in the end 98% of us fail and gain the weight back. To ensure your success we suppress your appetite to the point where you can comfortably eat very little and lose weight as fast as is safely possible. We use natural nutritional supplements or GLP-1 drugs like semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) or tirzepatide (Mounjaro or Zepbound) for appetite suppression. We continue appetite suppression into the maintenance phase of the program. We consider obesity to be a chronic incurable condition, which requires constant maintenance for optimal control. The supplement and drug doses may be lower in maintenance phase, but most people will need to continue taking some of them to remain in healthy weight. To be effective in your weight losing efforts you have to learn to figure out energy value of the food you eat and limit it to the agreed upon amount. In maintenance the calorie allowance is increased to 11 cal. per pound of weight per day plus the estimated burn (for people doing a lot of physical labor or exercise). You should weigh and measure all the food you put in your mouth. You should record the calorie amounts in a ledger, not to exceed the agreed upon allowance at the end of each day. I will teach you to be effective, but you have to do it. Failure to do it the most common cause of failure in the program. The tool we like to use as food reference is this free website: www.CalorieKing.com If you feel you already eat very little, and have no need to count calories, you are most likely wrong, and this program is not for you. We can tell you exactly how much you eat by tracking your weight. If you are not losing weight and feel you are sticking to the calorie allowance, we will confront you with the fact that you are being less than truthful with us, and probably yourself. Many a patient has left the program after being confronted in this manner. Honesty with yourself and your doctor is very important. We don’t want to see you waste your money. If you are having difficulties, we will do our best to help you figure out where your counting is off. But we maintain that if you are not losing any weight, you are eating 11 cal. per pound of weight per day, not the amount suggested. Almost every patient in this predicament disagrees with this assessment. We feel that every one of them is deluding themselves. The alternative explanation is that the science this program is based on is faulty. Either way, it does not work for such a patient. Cost of the program: Your visits should be covered by your health insurance. If they are not, we have a discount cash program. You will need to come in every week or two initially, then every month once we figure out the effective supplement doses and you are losing weight easily, without much stress and at a good rate predicted by our computer program. The supplements are not covered by insurance and usually run somewhere between $180 and $330 per month, depending on the dose required to suppress appetite. Very few people fall above or below this range. The GLP-1 drugs may or may not be covered by insurance. Supplements vs drugs: My personal feeling is that the NRP supplements is a better option. I can't prove it. But this is what I've been taking myself since 1998 to prevent overeating. Many of my patients do well on them. For some it does not work well. GLP-1 drugs are a good option too. For some people they are more effective, and they may be covered by insurance in some cases. Whatever we use, it is better for your health to be in healthy weight than obese.