Database Query Update

I need to update/optimize my existing website, specifically how it queries/fetches data from the database. My web host suspended my website due to "heavy load" on their servers. They pointed to my outdated method of how we query the database. They said I need to to "optimize it" (their words). I have a very basic rudimentary news posting system and I've currently disabled this on my site. The site is up and running now to let visitors access other parts of the website, but the news is disabled. So I'm looking at getting the code updated and getting the news section back live on the website again. The web host complained on a specific string of code (I'll include this string below). This string shows up only in 5 files on my entire website and it needs to be improved/updated (according to my web host) So I'm not looking for a major overhaul in any way, only to get the news section back up and running again, without my web host suspending my account again, once traffic picks up. I've gotten other "warnings" from the web host in the past, that when I get a lot of traffic on the site there are too many connections to the database (they remain open?) The allowed number of connections to the database "max out". So this sounds to me like when a user connects to grab data from the database, the connection is not closed, but remain open and when we get a lot of hits, the server experience a heavy load. The concerned piece of code that the web host support mentioned to me is the following: "SELECT * FROM article_table ORDER BY id DESC" "The script is causing a heavy load on the server" they said. On the front end of things, the visitor only connects to the database when they visit the front page "[login to view URL]" and "[login to view URL]", this shows our news postings. I also have 3 admin files that use the same code: /admin/[login to view URL] /admin/[login to view URL] /admin/[login to view URL] Since only a few admins (3) connects to these 3 files however this shouldn't (technically) be an issue. However if there is a "better" way of connecting to the database, get data and then disconnect from the database, then that is what I'm looking for. This is a minor update project. I'll add the files that this is concerning, in an attached rar archive. If more information is needed regarding the connection to the database or the problem in general, please let me know. It's a bit difficult to describe it, but I hope that it makes sense. Thanks.