The LIVESTRONG.COM Blog

As you may know, LIVESTRONG.COM was overwhelmed with traffic thus far this year, thanks to thousands of new members who’ve likely made New Years resolutions to live a healthier 2009. Our dedicated tech team were able to make some server and code adjustments to restore stability and speed to the site earlier this week.

But, as part of those fixes, they had to cache some data on the MyPlate screen of The Daily Plate. This was a temporary measure, and it has had the effect of making some of the weekly and monthly totals on the lower half of your MyPlate screen lag behind. It’s our intent to restore full functionality to those totals by the end of the day today.

Caching those numbers definitely made them less useful, but it also enabled us to get the site running much more smoothly, which we felt was a worthwhile trade-off. 

Again, it’s our aim to get the MyPlate weekly/monthly totals fully restored by end of the day.

Thanks, as always, for your patience and support!

This post comes from Christine Sardo, LIVESTRONG.COM’s Expert for Nutrition and Cancer Prevention and Survivorship.

There is so much to look forward to in the year ahead. New research is on the horizon in the areas of cancer prevention and survivorship, cancer treatments and technologies, and in the areas of cancer screening and early detection. The quest to win the war on cancer through improved prevention and treatment will continue to skyrocket and provide yet another level of optimism as more people survive this disease.

As you probably know, the number of cancer survivors continues to climb – there are currently over 14 million cancer survivors living in the United States, a number that has almost quadrupled since the 1970’s. It’s encouraging to think about how far we’ve come, and the potential that lies ahead. While science and medical technology has provided incredible advances, the passionate and empowered patient has also significantly contributed to the successes we’ve seen in beating this disease. Having the will and motivation to change/improve their diet when they would rather stick to their same old comfort foods (up to one-third of cancers are related to the foods that we eat); engaging in physical activity on days when they just don’t feel up to it; writing and journaling to keep track of progress and writing future goals to improve overall well-being; maintaining and developing relationships to keep a healthy-state-of mind and reduce stress; joining support groups and reaching out to others for social support; and developing support groups to bring people together to laugh, share ideas, and collectively come up with new ways of coping with the ups and downs of treatment, care, quality of life, and ultimately survivorship.

Cancer patients are truly amazing. The power of the patient is one that cannot be ignored – they provide the life force and the energy beyond what the treatments provide and the care that they ultimately receive. And all of their caretakers – the families, friends, and loved ones who don’t give up, who are right by the patients side whenever they need them, who comfort them and support their decisions, who absorb their pain and hold their hand through the good times and bad, who think about them and pray for them each and every day—the caretakers also contribute to the astonishing and encouraging number of cancer survivors alive and well today.

There are so many factors that will contribute beating cancer. Fighting the war on cancer in 2009 will come with new challenges, new hope, and will likely change in the landscape of cancer as we know it today.

It’s exciting to think about what lies ahead in the next year, I hope that we all can find ways (and time) to exercise more, smoke less, eat more of the right foods, manage stress through healthy relationships and strive for work-life balance, and take time to spend quality time with those we love. All of these things will put us on the right track to living a life that promotes health and prevents disease.

Wishing you the best for a healthy and happy 2009 –
Christine

Visit Christine’s profile and learn more about cancer prevention and survivorship.

BBC News is reporting that an investigation conducted by the Voice of Young Science network found that many claims by companies promoting Detox products were “meaningless.”

The Voice of Young Science network reviewed 15 products from body flushes to facial cleansers claiming to remove “toxins” and “free radicals” from the body. In most cases, the companies producing the products simply used the word “detox” to describe cleaning or brushing.
“The ‘toxins’ turned out to be the dirt, make-up and skin oils that any cleanser would be expected to remove,” said one researcher reviewing a Garnier face wash.

BBC also noted a five-day detox plan from the popular British pharmacy Boots, which claimed to detoxify and flush away toxins was also criticized for not being backed by evidence.
Detox diets are often under criticism for being unhealthy and potentially dangerous—but not much has been said about detox products that can be misleading and a waste of money. Alice Tuff, from Sense About Science even went on to describe detox products as, “a return to mystical properties being claimed for products in the 21st century …”

Tom Wells a chemist who participated in the research concluded with, “The minimum sellers of detox products should be able to offer is a clear understanding of what detox is and proof that their product actually works.”

I think when it comes to beauty and diet products it’s always caveat emptor or buyer beware, but does this new information about detox products surprise or upset you? I’ll be the first to admit that I’ve tried detox products. I even did the Master Cleanse last year and felt better after doing it. People also claim that fasting once a week is healthy, but I have to agree, in general, healthy eating and drinking the recommended amount of water, abstinence from alcohol, drugs and smoking are the best ways to keep your body free of toxins.

Are you more or less likely to buy detox products or go on a detox diet with the discovery of this new research? Or, is this old news for you? Sound off in the comments.
Click here for the full article and video from BBC news.

As you may have noticed, LIVESTRONG.COM has suffered from slowdowns and stability issues over the past 48 or so hours.

We expected a big influx of new users at the start of the year. As folks make New Years resolutions to lose weight and get healthy, it’s not surprising that they would choose LIVESTRONG and The Daily Plate to get started. Still, we were stunned by the massive barrage of new members we’ve had sign up over the past few days.

We’d thought we were prepared for the extra resources necessary, but we were unfortunately clearly unprepared for just how popular we’d become.

Our systems team and developers have been working tirelessly to get things running more smoothly, and have made great strides. Things are already running a lot better, though you’ll likely note some mild slowness for the next few hours while thousands of your fellow members track the foods they’ve been trying to log for days!

Thanks so much for your patience and support. Remember, you can always know what we’re working on by checking out The LIVESTRONG List.

As you may know, our product team, designers, and developers are constantly toiling away on improvements to LIVESTRONG.COM. We’re always hard at work on new features and bug fixes alike. But it’s not always easy for you, our members, to know what’s exactly on our plates at any given time.

We hope to change that with the launch of The LIVESTRONG List, a page devoted to listing out everything we’re working on. We’ll do our best to keep it current and complete, and you’ll have a better sense of what we’re working on!

Take a look, and enjoy!

All of us here behind-the-scenes at LIVESTRONG.COM want to wish you a happy, healthy, and inspiring 2009. We’ve really appreciated your support since our site launched a few months ago, and we look forward to helping you achieve whatever goals you set for yourself for the year ahead.

Whether you want to lose weight, spend more time with family, run a marathon, or just have more fun — we wish you the best of luck!

We announced this last month: Nike and Lance Armstrong partnered on a LIVESTRONG Collection holiday gift guide that allows holiday shoppers to support the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) and the ongoing battle to overcome cancer. Nike and Lance have united with LAF supporters Evan Handler, Ben Harper, Elle Fanning, Susan Sarandon, Forrest Whitaker, Lisa Leslie, Hillary Duff, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Dana Delany, Masi Oka, Mark Parker and Robin Roberts, all of whom appear in the gift guide.

As part of the Give 100% promotion, Nike is sponsoring a contest where you can help us identify someone in your life who consistently gives 100%. Whether it’s fundraising, fighting a disease, or being an advocate in the community, tell us about that person for their chance to spend a day with one of the remarkable individuals listed above.

Submissions close on December 31st, so don’t miss the deadline and tell us about someone you know who Gives 100%!

UPDATE: We have all the volunteers we need now; thanks!

Planning on losing weight in the New Year? Let us help!

We are looking for five very dedicated Daily Plate users to participate in our new Diet Season Promotion.

Here is what you would have to do:
Track your food and exercise daily on the Daily Plate
Take before and after photos, video testimonials
Write one blog per week to track your progress

In return you will receive:

• A diet starter kit with food scales, pedometer and more!
• Daily contact with our Nutritionist to help you through your diet
• An iPod Touch with the Daily Plate application on completion of your diet! 

If you are interested please email us at:  livestrongdietfaceoff@livestrong.com  with ‘LIVESTRONG Diet Reviewer’ in the subject line.

Good luck and happy dieting!

UPDATE: We have received all the volunteers we need; thanks!

Last night, we rolled out a few new fixes to the site. I’m especially pleased that we were able to address a few niggling glitches that, although small, were major annoyances for some of you!

• When writing in your diaries on The Daily Plate, many of you noted that your apostrophes and quotation marks could get mangled. This will no longer happen! 
• We’ve made a variety of UI fixes and enhancements to the new “Lance” tab, where you can keep up with our advisor Lance Armstrong as he trains and continues his worldwide cancer awareness campaign.
• Group names are now alphabetized on your profile, so that it’s easier to find the exact one you’re looking for.

Some of you may have noted that LIVESTRONG.COM and TheDailyPlate.com were offline for a bit earlier today. We ran into some issues with one of our databases, and it took some time to repair.

As part of the fix, we’ve archived all MyPlate data that’s more than six months old. So, if you’re wondering why you can’t find that burger you tracked back in April — now you know! 

We plan to restore all archived data over the next several days.

Please let us know if you run into any glitchiness that you think may be related to this. Thanks, as always, for your patience and support!