mysql load, help with ideas related to local cache

[Matt Nelson]

I have a web page that runs under PHP.  I query a mysql database every 5-10
seconds, with each meta refresh.  This was fine and worked decent, until
other people started using it.  Now the connections have grown to a number
that they need to be handled better.  I was thinking of creating a daemon
that runs every 5 seconds and then populates a flat file that apache/php
would read with every refresh thus limiting the load to one connection every
5 seconds.

Does anybody have any better ideas?