THE OFFICIAL MAGAZINE OF THE WOMEN’S FLAT TRACK DERBY ASSOCIATION (WFTDA) ISSUE 6, WINTER 2009
fiveonfivemag.com
health and fitness
vitamin d: it’s not just for bones anymore J O H N R U D O F F, M . D . , FA C , A K A J O H N N Y T H E K N I F E
Fact of life: rollergirls fall down. A lot. Usually they go splat, but occasionally they go crunch. Your bones take a beating, and so we’ll start talking about vitamin D in the usual way – concerning healthy and strong bones. But we won’t end there. Vitamin D is a lot more interesting than just bones. Vitamin D (we’ll now just call it D) allows the gut to absorb calcium and phosphorus, and without adequate D, bone is neither dense nor strong. Various conditions can be the result: osteomalacia, osteopenia or osteoporosis. If your circulating D levels are inadequate, you cannot absorb more than 10-15% of the calcium you consume. Without calcium, you cannot make strong bone. Females make most of their bone and bone strength between about ages 16 and 35, and they lose bone strength progressively through menopause and into old age. If you don’t make lots of good bone now, you can’t play catch-up later in life. If you go into menopause with light, poorly-calcified bones, you may be destined for an old age of hip and vertebral fractures, a “dowager’s hump” (that stooped, bent-at-the-shoulder shape of older women with terribly painful compression fractures of the spine), and easily fractured wrists and legs. Historically, the minimum requirement of D for adults was 400 Units (400 IU). This is far too low. It was calculated back in the 1920s to show how much D was the minimum needed to prevent rickets in children in working-class, cloudy England. This requirement has not really been definitively updated. Women athletes need far more than this “minimum.” The good news is that you can get all you need for a dollar a month. Vitamin D is produced in a complex series of steps, starting with the effect of sunlight on skin and then involving the actions of the liver and the kidney. This may suggest that diet and sunlight alone provide enough D. They don’t. This is why supplementation is needed – foods are a poor source of D, and, unlike our huntergatherer ancestors, we don’t spend enough time half-naked, outside, in the sun, making D (and dying of disease or trauma at 35.) This is a peculiarity of D – calling it a vitamin suggests that it is easily obtained through proper diet or with sunshine alone. It isn’t. 50% of Hawaiian adults receiving three hours of sun per day were D deficient. 40% of south Floridians and 25% of Arizonans 10 | Winter 2009 | fiveonfivemag.com
were deficient. Dietary sources of D, such as cod liver oil (when was the last time you took that?!), oily fish, fortified milk or orange juice, will not reliably give you anywhere near enough D. Generally (and there is some disagreement among experts), a D level (this is called 25(OH)D) of less than 20 ng/ml is labeled deficient; about 21-30 is insufficienct, and more than 30 is adequate. Many experts are suggesting a target level in the range of about 35-40, however. This is easily attained. What types of people are at risk for deficiency? People who live in northern latitudes, like Portland’s Rose City Rollers, who rarely see sunshine from October through April. People who work and/or exercise indoors (flat track derby isn’t an outdoor sport). Black people – the melanin in their skin prevents sun absorption and creation of D. Obese or even overweight people tend to “hide” D in fat, so they need more D to get adequate amounts circulating. Fair-skinned people who regularly use sunblock: even SPF 15 will reduce D production by more than 90%. Much less commonly, people with kidney disease or fat malabsorption syndromes need massive D supplementation; but this is a special issue. You see, the common factor is lack of sunlight. This is why supplementation of D is important: using sunlight on skin to produce D increases the total lifetime risk of skin cancers (including the lethal melanoma) in long-lived modern people. This is why the American Academy of Dermatology wisely says “...(D) should not be obtained from unprotected exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation.” But that’s all the dull stuff. Now it gets cool. Remember... it’s not just for bones anymore. We’ll talk about cancer, pain, brainpower, arthritis, and (my favorite) heart disease. Most cells in the body have vitamin D receptors – meaning that D can affect the actions and consequences of most cells in the body. Vitamin D reduces cell proliferation (uncontrolled growth), reduces angioneogenesis (which is the formation of new microscopic blood vessels needed for tumors to develop and to metastasize), and also controls the appropriate timing of cell death. Recent interesting studies (in peer-reviewed mainstream conventional medical journals) suggest that D supplementation, or adequate circulating levels of D, are associated with a reduction
in cancer incidence, particularly breast, colon, bladder, mouth, and leukemia. Further, because of the mechanisms of action of D, it appears that people with some cancers (especially colon) who have adequate D are less likely to die of that cancer than are people who are D-deficient. Chronic pain may be related to D deficiency. (Yes, it may also have something to do with falls, collisions, and workouts.) Severe deficiency is associated with chronic muscle and bone pain, low back pain and possibly with nerve pain (neuropathy) of the sort seen in diabetes. This type of pain may be severe and life-altering, and it is felt in the hands and especially the feet and legs. D affects heart muscle and arteries, overall heart function, and survival, too. This means that a population which is D-deficient has a total mortality much greater than an otherwise similar population that has normal levels of D – and most of that excess death is due to heart disease. Low D levels are associated with double the risk of heart attack and nearly double the risk of general heart-related death. This seems to be indirect, because D deficiency is associated with all the direct heart-disease risk factors, such as high blood pressure, abnormal cholesterol, both diabetes and excess insulin, and heart failure. So if D deficiency is related to all this misery, and it’s easy to fix, why are so many people D-deficient? Until recently, the metabolic effects of vitamin D were not appreciated, and its effects were thought to be limited to bone production. That’s why I wrote this article. One question comes to mind: do you need to be tested? It is cheap (about $40-45) and commonly available. Many experts, especially bone gurus, would say that if you don’t have risk factors for severe deficiency, or the inability to absorb D supplementation, they would not test you. In general, I would recommend against it, particularly if finances are important. The likelihood of “toxicity”(too much D) is almost unheard of. Instead; go to any Costco, chain supermarket, or discount store and buy a bottle of 2,000 units of Vitamin D3. (This is vitamin D3, also called Cholecalciferol. Don’t buy Vitamin D2, called Ergocalciferol.) At Costco, nearly 2 years’ supply, 600
tablets, costs about $14. Take one a day faithfully. There are no side effects. After 6 months, if your finances are OK, get a vitamin D test. If the level is greater than 30-35 or so, keep taking the vitamin D forever. If it isn’t, see a doc (a medical doctor, namely an M. D. or D. O.) who knows something about endocrinology. The combination calcium-vitamin D tablets (like Os-Cal or Viactiv) do not provide enough D – usually only 400 units. Take a couple of daily TUMS instead. If you already have bone problems – such as unexplained fractures, X-rays showing osteopenia and so on – then testing your baseline level of D might be reasonable. Major warning!! You do not need any sort of expensive or special supplements, especially if sold by naturopaths or Internet charlatans. Avoid these quacks like the plague – they will take your money, frighten you, and they will not provide you with any special, secret formulation of Vitamin D that your body utilizes better than the product you get from Costco or Target. (There is a similar scam with “coral calcium” that has gone on for years. You want more calcium? Take TUMS along with your D.) In summary: 1. You are young and athletic. Set the basis for a lifetime of staying that way. 2. You don’t get enough vitamin D from diet or sun. Supplement it. It is easy, cheap (<$1/month) and has no side effects. Do this indefinitely. 3. The obvious effects of D are on bone health. But adequate circulating levels will improve chronic pain, decrease cancer risk, improve cardiac function and longevity and may improve arthritis and seasonal affective disorder. 4. Whether and when to be tested for D deficiency is controversial. If you have had many fractures or x-rays that suggest “light bones,” it may be worth doing. 5. If there are men in your life, remind them: “Osteoporosis – it’s not just for women anymore.”
Johnny the Knife is a cardiologist, derby groupie, photographer and hanger-on with the Rose City Rollers of Portland, Oregon.
fiveonfivemag.com | Fall 2009 | 11
games and coaching
2009 WFTDA nationals J U S T I C E F E E L G O O D M A R S H A L L , D E R B Y N E W S N E T WO R K photos by Jules Doyle
One year ago, at the end of the 2008 WFTDA Nationals in Portland, Oregon, New York’s Gotham Girls completed a dominating year with a 134-66 championship bout victory over Chicago’s Windy City Rollers. At the time, it was Gotham’s 12th win in a row. Gotham’s record-setting undefeated streak continued through most of 2009, reaching 18 games before their regional rivals Philly finally stopped them by just one point, 90-89, in the championship bout of September’s Eastern Regionals. This November when the 2009 Nationals in Philly rolled around, many derby observers thought the main question was whether Philly could translate home advantage into a second defeat of Gotham or if Gotham was going to take that one-point loss as a minor speed bump on th e way to a repeat championship. But some new teams from the West had other ideas. By the time the dust had settled in the Philadelphia Convention Center, Philly had been dramatically knocked off in their very first match, Gotham had been eliminated before reaching the semifinals, the West would take three of the top four spots, and a team that hadn’t even played their first WFTDA sanctioned match when Gotham won the 2008 championship were the new undisputed queens of the flat track derby world. In an illustration of the continuing evolution of the flat track game, exactly half of the teams this year were making return trips to Nationals while the other half was debuting. Returning to Nationals after previous appearances were Gotham,
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Texas, and Windy City (all of whom appeared in both 2007 and 2008), Kansas City and Detroit (from 2007) and Philly (from 2008). Making their first-ever trips was the entirety of the West contingent (#1 Oly, #2 Rocky Mountain and #3 Denver), Boston, Madison and Houston. Friday Day One’s action kicked off with a match between #2NC Madison and #3E Boston that looked on paper to be very evenly matched – and proved to be exactly so on the track. The lead changed five times in this one and the largest lead all bout long was a mere 20 points very early on for Boston. Madison kept Boston on their toes by throwing in star passes much more often than usual, although Boston was usually pretty good at keeping focus on the active jammer. Madison led at the half after two lead changes, 76-62. The second half of the bout saw three more lead changes before Boston pulled ahead 104-88 with about five minutes to play, but Madison arrested Boston’s scoring there and almost pulled out a last-jam miracle that ended up being stymied by penalties. The score was 104-98 favoring Boston with just over two minutes to play, and it seemed as if
Madison had been handed the game on a platter when Boston jammer Krushpuppy went to the penalty box in her opening pass, giving opposing number Juke Boxxx a minute to work alone. Unfortunately for Madison, they lost their jammer twice to the box in that jam as well, and Boston escaped with the win, 104-98. As it turned out, though, that opening bout wasn’t any sort of harbinger of the rest of the day’s action. Rocky Mountain seriously punished Houston in their first-round matchup, running up the biggest ever first-half lead at Nationals level by holding a 142-5 advantage a t the break. Houston got some more offense running in the second half, but had no answer whatsoever for the speed and strength of RMRG and lost 239-46.
In the third bout of the day, Denver showed a whole new style of derby play to a clearly bemused Kansas City. Denver had taken slow and positional play to an extreme, with their packs often choosing not to accelerate at all off the pivot line and an absolutely smothering isolation game on power jams. The result was quite a few jams where everybody on the track was either stopped or going clockwise except for the Denver jammer,
FINAL SCORES Madison 96 vs. Boston 104
Gotham Girls 187 vs. Detroit 38
Windy City 125 vs. Denver 157
Denver 91 vs. Oly 178
Rocky Mountain 239 vs. Houston 46
Texas 111 vs. Boston 72
Oly 136 vs. Gotham Girls 105
Denver 151 vs. Rocky Mountain 103
Kansas City 89 vs. Denver 175
Philly 121 vs. Rocky Mountain 128
Texas 139 vs. Rocky Mountain 82
Texas 100 vs. Oly 178
which clearly baffled and riled the audience, who didn’t take very long to turn on Denver and start booing every time they used the tactic. But it was undeniably working.
pack wor k was looking every bit as dangerous as it was last year, as they continued to increase their lead in the second half, scoring 101 points against 13 for the overmatched Detroit girls. Final score for this one was 187-38 for Gotham. Though the Friday games only had one close bout, the fireworks would really start to fly on Saturday, as two of the #1 seeds lost their opening bouts and the 2008 champs went down early.
Denver jammer Kimmy Kimmy Bang Bang picked up 20-0 and 23-5 powerjams in the first 30 minutes that accounted for nearly half of Denver’s halftime point total, 100-49, and Denver rolled on to be up by 101 points over the 2007 national champs before KC’s big blocker Eclipse took the jam star and rolled for a crowd pleasing but ultimately irrelevant 15-0 closing jam, leaving the final score 175-89 for Denver. Friday’s action closed with an expected outcome, as 2008 champs Gotham fell behind 11-0 early in their bout with Detroit but quickly righted themselves with a 50-1 run and held an 86-25 lead at the half. Gotham’s nationally feared
Saturday Saturday’s first bout between Texas and Boston played out as the seeding would have predicted, as Boston once again fell into first-half penalty trouble, but the stronger and more experienced Texas was able to take advantage where Madison had not. While Boston kept it close at 18-11 after the first ten minutes, Texas blew it open with a 36-0 through the middle of the half, and was up 60-26 at the break.
The second half proved to be similar to the first, as Boston played Texas nearly dead even for the first ten minutes of the half – 9 points for Texas and 8 for Boston – but Texas once again took control with a big run, this time 26-1. Texas went on to eliminate Boston by a final score of 111-72.
Tournament hosts Philly followed up by playing an instant classic against the upstart Rocky Mountain. Though Philly was greatly favored due to their recent defeat of giants Gotham, RMRG got a spectacular all-around performance from recent addition DeRanged, supported by jamming from Whipity Pow and extremely effective blocking from Frida Beater and Assaultin’ Pepa. They held a surprising 28-3 lead early, and Philly had to fight very hard just to shave three points off that lead by halftime.
Philly took their first lead after 40 minutes of play at 74-71, but Rocky Mountain hung in there long enough to go back up with eight minutes left, 97-92. That lead wasn’t safe either, though, and Philly remained just a hair ahead at 111-107 with under two minutes to go. That resultant jam proved to be a hair puller as DeRanged and Philly’s Elle Viento had to chase an extremely fast pack for nearly the full jam until DeRanged finally got in pack, grabbed four points and called before Elle could get any, sending the bout to overtime. The inexhaustible DeRanged took the star again and ran for 17 points in the full-length OT jam while Teflon Donna was held to 10, and Rocky Mountain delivered a thrilling upset to boot
fiveonfivemag.com | Winter 2009 | 17
art and media
whip it review S H E W H O C A N N OT B E N A M E D , R O C K Y M O U N TA I N R O L L E R G I R L S
Chances are that if you are reading this magazine, you’ve probably already seen Whip It and couldn’t care less about another review. It took me a while to get out and see the film. I mean, who has time to watch a movie, much less go to a movie theater these days? I was already barraged by so many different opinions, even before the movie was released here in Denver, that I didn’t really know what to expect. I knew I needed to write this piece eventually, so I had to see the film for myself no matter what my pre-conceived notions were. Going in, I had heard everything from what a poignant portrayal it is of a young girl finding herself to it being an unoriginal piece of fluff. My opinion is somewhere in between the two viewpoints, for what that’s worth. I liked the film for some reasons, and didn’t like it for others. First, the things that I liked: The story is a cute, albeit a familiar one that we can all somewhat identify with. Adolescent girl feels suppressed by her parents’ values which are being thrust upon her (especially her mom’s: Beauty Pageants or Bust!). So, in an attempt to make strides to find herself, she becomes entrenched in a not-so-prim-and-proper subculture that she stumbles upon by accident while going about her relatively ho-hum business. Sure, it’s already been done: think Valley Girl or Ladies and Gentlemen, the Fabulous Stains. I will admit that I’m a sucker for films of this particular ilk. In Whip it, the fringe faction that Bliss Cavendar becomes smitten with is roller derby. Watching her run the gauntlet of the new recruit process was a nice trip down “I Can Relate to That” lane. The film does a decent job of portraying how tough it can be to get involved in something bigger than yourself – figuring out group dynamics, balancing work/school/friends – things that we as real derby people can surely identify with. Also, the non-derby folk in Bliss’ life were a quirky mix that I got a kick out of – especially the Dad, with his convenient college football distraction; and her friend/coworker Pash, in all her boy-craziness. We probably all have folks in our lives that make these characters seem quaint by comparison. Now for the not so likable things: The love story, for one. Not that I dislike love stories in general, but this one was just wrong
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in my opinion. The whole time I had to suppress my urge to yell, “Dude, she’s only 17! You could go to jail!” And what was up with that pool scene? The back seat of a car or the dude’s band practice space would’ve been more realistic venues for sex. Cliché suggestions, yes, but at least the actors would’ve been breathing! In addition, what the film didn’t touch on at all was the massive amount of work the skaters put in to keep a league going. Surely that would’ve bored the general public to tears, but I really wanted to see Bliss behind her computer trying to read 100 emails, 10 different forums, and researching drills, skates, or sponsors. I imagine it would’ve instantly won the hearts of derby people everywhere if it were added into the scene where cyberspace informs her that her hipster honey was cheating on her. But alas, that’s the trouble with films. They don’t always give you everything you want. Whip It was not so much about derby, but about people finding themselves and helping others do the same along the way. It was a nice little two-hour distraction that held my interest because of the backdrop of the plot. Not sure I would see it again, though. Like I said, who has the time?
fiveonfivemag.com | Winter 2009 | 51 1. Skater on left has a different helmet color. 2. Skater on left is missing green under eye. 3. Jammer’s outside wheels are orange. 4. Skater on right is missing stars on right leg. 5. Skater on right is missing text from logo on shirt. 6. Ref is missing stripe on left arm. 7. Green pivot’s pony tail is missing.
Jules Doyle
THERE ARE SEVEN DIFFERENCES BETWEEN THE PHOTOS – FIND ‘EM!