A very healthy presenter: the business empire of Elena Malysheva

Beneficial partnership

The 55-year-old TV presenter, whom some consider the country's chief doctor, and others consider one of the main comedians, said from the screen that Russia lacks innovative clinics.
For example, in August 2015, she said that in the country they do not block the solar plexus, although this procedure would allow cancer patients to live a long time without pain and drugs. It is obvious that Malysheva is now going to fill the gap in Russian medicine by opening her own center. It was reported that Malysheva’s modern clinic (dietology, diagnostics with MRI, etc.) could open by the end of 2015. The place was also named. Allegedly, the medical facility will appear on Krasnaya Presnya, on the site of City Clinical Hospital No. 19, which will be attached to the Botkin Hospital, where the chief physician is Malysheva’s twin brother Alexey Shabunin. But, as an employee of the accounting department of the Elena Malysheva Medical Center told Life, the building is currently still being renovated. Malysheva herself declined to comment.

“This is all untrue, and there is nothing to talk about yet,” said Malysheva.

Alexey Shabunin also refused to discuss this topic.

As follows from the Unified State Register of Legal Entities, Elena Malysheva Medical Center LLC appeared in May 2015 (the company has existed since 2012, but was previously called Brand Consulting). Initially, it was owned by Elena Malysheva and entrepreneur Dmitry Shchiglik (50% each). In July 2021, the wife of Deputy Minister of Finance Gulnara Farrakhova became a co-owner of the company. She received a share of 5%, and Malysheva’s share decreased accordingly. At the same time, Farrakhova holds the post of CEO of the company.

The Farrakhovs worked in the healthcare system for a long time. Gulnara Farrakhova served as deputy director of the Educational Center for High Medical Technologies in Tatarstan. Ayrat Farrakhov was the Deputy Minister of Health of Russia in 2013-2014, and before that he was the Minister of Health of Tatarstan. Doctor of Medical Sciences Farrakhov took the post of Deputy Minister of Finance of the Russian Federation in June 2014.

Malysheva and Farrakhova have known each other and have been collaborating for a long time. The teledoctor has visited Kazan more than once for work, for example, she took part in a round table on the topic of oncology, opened an action against breast cancer and presented an international medical school.

An expert from the consulting industry, familiar with Elena Malysheva, explained what benefits you can get if you do business with the wife of the Deputy Minister of Finance:

You can attract administrative resources. For example, officials will tell you when a profitable tender will be announced, or even help you win it. I can assume that Farrakhova herself and her husband could be the real investors. It's just not advertised. It can also be expected that any regulatory authorities will conduct inspections less frequently.

Dmitry Shchiglik is a skilled importer with American citizenship, vice-president of the World Forum of Russian-Speaking Jewry. At least until 2010, he headed the Moscow representative office of the Swiss trading company Mens Sana Pharmaceutical. This company, in particular, supplied the drug for the treatment of multiple sclerosis, Rebif, to Russia and managed to get into a scandal. An official of the Ministry of Health and Social Development, Diana Mikhailova, was accused of exceeding her official authority in the framework of cooperation with Mens Sana Pharmaceutical in 2010.

It can be assumed that Malysheva’s medical center will cooperate with pharmaceutical companies that are associated with Shchiglik. According to the chairman of the Public Council for the Protection of Patients' Rights at Roszdravnadzor, Yan Vlasov, representatives of pharmaceutical companies are happy to advertise in Malysheva's programs (“Health” and “Live Healthy!”).

“Pharmaceutical companies interact with Malysheva’s programs and pay for advertising their products,” says Yan Vlasov. — Even if indirectly, the names of drugs and their effects are mentioned. I know of cases when patients filed complaints with doctors, the prosecutor's office and even in court, saying that the doctor prescribed them such a medicine, but it does not cure, but in the program they saw another medicine that would definitely cure them. As a result, conflicts arise.

How Malysheva makes money from advertising

Malysheva’s resources advertise almost everything, even the Moscow City Telephone Network and the recruiting portal jobrapido.com. The operator and founder of the media portal Zdorovieinfo.ru, according to the Roskomnadzor register, is Zdorovie Info LLC. This is a family project. In addition to Elena Malysheva herself, her sons Yuri and Vasily have shares in the company. But mostly advertising on the site, of course, is related to the topic of health. There are advertisements for medicines and dietary supplements (for example, the antiviral drug “Kagocel” and the weight loss product “Elkar”), commercial clinics (for example, “SM-Clinics”).

The financial indicators of Health Info LLC are not disclosed. But the indicators of Malysheva’s two other companies, which are engaged in attracting advertising, are known. Malysheva owns one of them, LLC WVM Corporation. Revenue in 2014, according to the latest data from the SPARK database, was 249 million rubles, net profit was 13 million rubles. The other one is owned by Malysheva together with the famous TV presenter, producer, ex-senator Alexei Pimanov. Revenue in 2014 was declared at 1 million rubles, net profit - 571 thousand rubles.

By the way, on Zdorovieinfo.ru the most profitable business of the pharmaceutical diva is actively advertised - dietary kits.

Magic boxes

With the same Shchiglik, the TV presenter owns Elena Malysheva’s Diet LLC (created in 2012). The company's website sells product sets for those who want to lose weight. The kits are packaged in boxes, each of which weighs 13.5 kg and supposedly lasts for two weeks. The sets are low in calories and salt, but the menu promises that there will be no suffering: “meatballs in red sauce with buckwheat,” “Italian spaghetti with meat balls and tomato sauce,” “chum salmon fillet with steamed bosto rice.”

These are mostly ready-made frozen meals. What is noteworthy is that not everything in them is uniquely useful. For example, chicken broth is just a Knorr packet. One box costs 14.5 thousand rubles. The company's revenue in 2014 amounted to 503 million rubles, net profit - 100 million rubles.

Malysheva’s diet helps some, while others throw away the boxes.

“I really like Elena Malysheva’s diet. Its main essence: in order to lose weight, you need to eat. For me, this is the best option, because I can’t and don’t want to be hungry... On Elena Malysheva’s diet, my mother lost 5 kg in a month, and I lost all the remaining extra pounds,” says one of the reviews on the website irecommend.ru .

“Elena Malysheva’s diet? Never! Never repeat my mistake! - this is another review on the same portal. - ...I suffered for another week, lost 4 kilograms in total and just quit. Well, I can't eat this. Buckwheat porridge from a saucepan is much tastier. And the chicken breast comes out of the oven with more flavor!”

On portals with vacancies you can see how Malysheva sees this enterprise: the empire is called the largest Russian holding company “Health”.

Project “Elena Malysheva’s diet for weight loss”

For many years now, the “Live Healthy” program has had a project in which participants lose weight following a diet developed by Elena Malysheva based on data from official medicine, confirmed empirically.

From time to time, these participants appear on the program and present a report on their achievements, and the vast majority actually lose weight.

And not the grueling path that they would have to go through following some kind of mono-diet, but even continuing to allow themselves something tasty (it turns out that there are even some sweets that are not only tasty, but also healthy, and will not negatively affect figure).

“Eat and lose weight!” The basic principle on which Elena Malysheva’s diet for losing weight at home is based. This is exactly what another name for the weight loss concept from the host of the TV show “Living Healthy” sounds like: “Eat and lose weight!”

Under no circumstances should you go hungry! This is the rule for all the right ways to lose weight from the World Health Organization. Hunger is the first enemy of weight loss . How to avoid it?

Here are tips from Elena Malysheva:

• One of the principles that must be adhered to when following this diet is that the volume of one meal should not exceed 200 g - about a glass. It’s convenient to measure portions this way, for example, broths and the like. And this is absolutely fair - after all, overweight people have a very stretched stomach that can accommodate a large amount of food, and this is an excess in calories, primarily due to the amount of food eaten. The stomach is a stretchable organ, but over time, if you do not overeat, it returns to the size of a healthy person who is not overweight or obese. And, as you know, the feeling of fullness depends on the fullness of the stomach. By consuming food in small portions, we gradually reduce this volume (of course, at first you will have to make some effort, but it is worth it). The stomach, according to Elena, should be approximately the volume of an adult’s fist. A very fair and justified rule from a physiological point of view! In addition, by consuming food in small portions, but often (about 4 times a day), you will avoid the feeling of hunger, which makes it very difficult to finish what you started and, in addition, really prevents fat loss. Avoiding the urge to eat is the most important principle of this wonderful diet.
• The next point is giving up salt , or significantly limiting it. This is also a completely justified rule, since salt retains moisture in the body. The body weight of obese people is partly due to the high fluid content of the tissues. By giving up salt or limiting it, already in the first days you can notice the movement of the scales in the direction of decrease without any effort, unless, of course, you increase the amount of food eaten) Over the course of a year, even if you don’t go on a diet, but by giving up salt, you can get rid of several extra kilograms due to liquid, maintaining the same diet and physical activity. As Dr. Malysheva says: “Salt is poison.” Many episodes of “Living Healthy” are devoted to this topic, even those that are not related to weight loss. Excessive consumption of this product is harmful to the body.
• It is necessary to chew food well.
• So, let's move on to the next point of Elena Malysheva's home diet. And no one can argue with him either: calculating the energy value of food . The success of any diet is based on compliance with the rule: calorie intake should be less than their expenditure. Just an axiom! In general, the required energy consumption per day is calculated based on gender, height, level of physical activity, body weight, according to Dr. Malysheva, on average, for women it is about 1200 kcal. To lose weight, this figure needs to be reduced, but it should not be less than 800 kcal per day - this is really low even for those who do not move much. Keeping track of calories is one of the principles not only of the Malyshev diet, but also of others. At first, this is a boring and tedious activity, but as psychologists have found out, if you instill in yourself a habit over the course of a month, it becomes a need. The main thing is not to give up! To follow the previous rule, you will need a detailed table of calorie content (there are many of these on the Internet) and kitchen scales, preferably with great accuracy (electronic). It's not always convenient, but the results are worth it. Let’s say that in order to eat at work without going overboard with calories, you can calculate everything at home in advance and take such a preparation with you in a container. At the same time, you need to remember that the calorie content of cereals and pasta in raw and cooked form is different per 100 g, and the calorie content of the finished dish is the sum of the calorie content of all the products included in its composition.
• It is necessary to move at least a little more , and ideally at least a couple of times a week to engage in some kind of sport. This will help speed up the weight loss process and improve the overall condition of the body.
• Malysheva also recommends several fasting days per month; as an example, she gives a fasting day on rice cooked in a special way . But other options are also possible. The main thing is that it is a light product - some kind of vegetable or fruit. Just one such day will allow you to reduce weight by about 1-1.5 kg, and most importantly, it helps fight the so-called plateau effect, when a person eats low-calorie food, moves the same amount, but does not lose weight! This often confuses and disappoints those who are trying hard to get in shape, and undermines their motivation. A fasting day just helps to shake up the body and get things moving.

What is the secret of Malysheva’s immortality?

From her youth, Malysheva worked towards becoming a teledoctor. Now she is 55. She studied both at the journalism department (she dropped out because her parents did not approve of her choice of profession) and at the medical school. But a compromise was found. She began talking about medicine from the screen in 1993. First there were the programs “Lazaret” (Channel Five) and “Did you call the doctor?” (RTR). In 1997, she came to “Health” and has been hosting this program for 19 years. In 2010, she also began hosting “Live Healthy!”

Almost all of Malysheva’s family are doctors: her parents, twin brother, sister, husband, one of her sons. Now she is a professor at the Moscow State Medical and Dental University, like her husband Igor Malyshev, a specialist in molecular biology. Malysheva herself defended her doctoral dissertation on the topic “Reprogramming the cellular responses of macrophages [cells that capture and digest bacteria in the human body]: a new strategy for controlling the inflammatory process.”

Crazy hands of medical care

“Malysheva quite successfully converts her own image into business projects,” notes Igor Berezin, president of the Guild of Marketers.

The television audience of Malysheva’s programs is mainly women 35-65 years old, concerned with the topic of health and healthy eating.

- Why women? Firstly, the program is broadcast on weekdays at such a time that housewives can watch it. It would be much more difficult for working men to do this,” says Igor Berezin. — Secondly, women, on average, care more about their health than men, this is known. Or, for example, they are more concerned about excess weight. For a man, an extra five kilos is nothing, but for a woman, every kilogram is a tragedy.

According to the marketer, Malysheva manages to remain popular for so long thanks to two techniques: humor and provocations. The shocking effect is then broadcast in waves in the media.

In June 2021, newspapers retold a program where Malysheva spoke about the benefits of masturbation. Viewers were shown video messages from old women who complained of joint pain and other ailments. Then the old women appeared in the studio. Each one was given make-up and rolled out into the public wearing a huge cake.

We don't want to ask for details, but this is what sex instead of a pill means!

declared Elena Malysheva

In March, Elena Malysheva taught men to pee in the toilet without splashing. In one of the episodes of “Live Healthy!” A toilet was placed on the stage, and Malysheva, using a device that spews a stream, showed a master class. And even earlier she told how to boil water if you don’t have a kettle and a saucepan. You can use a condom: pour water into it, tie it and put it in the microwave.

In 2015, at the height of the crisis, Malysheva showed how to save on clothes and transform men's underpants into a women's top.

We need a place we call the gusset. We cut out the middle, and it turns out where a man has a butt, and a woman has a breast

According to Igor Berezin, such provocations are a well-thought-out campaign that makes it possible to produce a program every day about essentially the same problems.

— She is a very competent professional, if we talk about her as a media character. “I don’t undertake to judge her medical achievements now,” noted Igor Berezin. — As Mark Twain said, any message in the press is good, except an obituary. They joke about Malysheva, she is parodied. And this works for her rating. Thus, she expands her plot in the information space.

Don't overeat

Let's start with the same thing and find out what is useful in this advice. The TV presenter emphasized that there are twice as many obese women over 50 as men. This is due to the lack of testosterone in women, which is the main fat-burning hormone.

Men have much more muscle mass than women, and muscle is the main place where fat is burned. It is in the muscles that factories for burning fat are located - mitochondria.

In addition, there are two more important stages in women's lives when they are most susceptible to obesity. The first is associated with the period after childbirth, and the second with menopause. During these periods, the hormonal status of the fair sex changes, which is why their body copes much worse with excess weight.

Photo: vk.com/zdorovie_info

Doctor, we're losing him

But even falling into satire and folklore - and this is also part of the brand - does not save the smiling TV presenter from a gradual drop in ratings.

The popularity of her programs for Life was analyzed by the communications agency Havas Media based on data from TNS Russia. Thus, the “Health” program on Channel One is broadcast about 50 times a year. If in 2008 the program was watched by an average of 1.7% of the country's population (10.8 million people), then in 2021 - 1.1% (7.2 million people). The agency's data is based on the TVR indicator - the audience of one average minute of a program (in other words, the number of viewers who simultaneously watched the program (as a % of the total population)).

The program “Live Healthy!” comes out about 250 times a year. In 2010, it was watched by 1.9% of the Russian population (12 million people), now - 1.4% (9.6 million people).

False-Malysheva

Small businesses took Malysheva’s advice in their own way on how to use men’s underpants during a crisis. A portrait of Malysheva herself and her main meme, “This is the norm,” began to be placed on the underpants. These panties cost 745 rubles in the online store. There are also T-shirts (1.5 thousand rubles), bomber jackets (six thousand rubles), pants (two thousand rubles), hats (one thousand rubles).

That is, others are actively making money on Malysheva’s name.

Thus, the website elena-malysheva.com offers to purchase goji berries, which Elena Malysheva advises.

It is written that this is the official website of nutritionist No. 1 in Russia. They also sell a magnetic posture corrector from Elena Malysheva, relief from snoring from Elena Malysheva, green coffee from Elena Malysheva, monastery tea from Elena Malysheva.

But she doesn't feel sorry.

“I have nothing to do with this site,” Elena Malysheva told a Life correspondent. — The Internet is littered with advertisements with my name, the name of Roshal and others. There's nothing you can do about it.

Don't expect quick results

If your goal is to lose weight in two weeks or a month, then this diet is definitely not for you! This method of weight loss requires a period of at least three months.

At the same time, in order to achieve the desired result, you need to strictly follow the program, which you can study for free on Elena Vasilievna’s official website, or buy a ready-made weight loss course.

The second option is good because when you purchase the course, you will be sent a package with ready-made food, which you will need to eat for three months according to a certain regimen. This weight loss system is quite unusual, but judging by the reviews on the Internet, it is very effective.

There are basic rules for losing weight that need to be followed daily, for example:

• the amount of calories consumed for an adult should not exceed 1200 kcal per day;
• if you engage in excessive physical activity, you are allowed to slightly increase your caloric intake;
• there is a certain list of prohibited products, but more on that later;
• eat as often as possible, but in small portions;
• Chew your food thoroughly, this way you will not only improve digestion, but you will also feel fuller much faster;
• you can’t starve, the human body, when there is a lack of food, begins to store fat;
• Drink as much fluid as possible before and after meals, water helps burn fat deposits.

Respect for colleagues

In the medical community, the TV presenter is respected for her professionalism.

“Elena Malysheva is quite professional, and her show (and this is just a show) is in great demand,” says Yan Vlasov, a neurologist by training. — Even ridiculous layouts can draw people’s attention to some problem, and that’s good. But here it is important to understand that the quality of recommendations depends on the specialists who are invited to the program.

“I myself have taken part in Elena Malysheva’s program more than once, I’ve known her for a long time,” says ophthalmologist Vyacheslav Kurenkov. — She is very good at new technologies. I think this is important. Informing patients is a kind of prevention.

“I think that there should be programs like Malysheva’s,” says Irina Kutuzova, a local therapist at diagnostic center No. 5 in Moscow. - She talks interestingly. The only thing is that there are no ideal treatment regimens that suit everyone. Therefore, before you do anything with your health, you need, of course, to consult a doctor in person. The main thing is that, watching such programs, people think about their health.

Nine golden rules of diet

1. You can't go hungry! The human body is very sensitive, realizing that it is in danger of starvation, it begins to store fat from even the smallest amount of food. The result is no weight loss. As mentioned earlier, Malysheva’s diet is aimed at gently accustoming the body to smaller portions.
2. It is necessary to count calories, this will help keep yourself within limits. Counting calories not only distracts a person losing weight from thinking about snacking, but also makes it clear that even a small bun is extremely “dangerous” when losing weight. According to Elena Malysheva, 1200 kcal per day is considered the norm.
3. Chew your food slowly, this way you will protect yourself from overeating and will greatly facilitate the functioning of your stomach. It is recommended to chew food at least twenty times.
4. Drink as much water as possible. The liquid has no calorie content, it perfectly fills the stomach and removes the feeling of hunger. During fasting days, water improves metabolism significantly and removes all toxins. It is recommended to drink about 10 glasses of disciplined water per day.
5. Fast carbohydrates are bad allies for weight loss. Try to reduce your carbohydrate intake as much as possible. Buns, sweets, cakes must be excluded immediately. It is better to replace them with vegetable fiber.
6. Do not eat anything fatty, choose only low-calorie foods. In addition, avoid consuming oil, sugar, and most importantly salt.
7. Eat proteins - boiled chicken is the best option. Intake of animal and vegetable protein into the body will help prevent the development of muscle dystrophy.
8. Play sports. Moderate exercise, for example, aerobics, running. The most important thing is not to be lazy and constantly exercise; regularity in this matter is very important!
9. Do weekly fasting days: on rice or buckwheat. Many nutritionists believe that this stimulates the weight loss process well.