MPP eating right after health scare
Brad Duguid resets his priorities after experiencing early-warning heart trouble
Not often is a salami sandwich a lifechanging experience.
But it was for veteran politico Brad Duguid, now 25 pounds lighter and back jogging after what was, in hindsight, a lucky heart attack.
“I never, ever felt in any danger — and maybe that’s not a good thing — or any kind of stress or pain,” recalls the 53-year-old minister of economic development and growth in Premier Kathleen Wynne’s cabinet.
“It was a real wake-up call for me that I have been secretly carrying around coronary disease without any symptoms to speak of.”
It was April 15, a Friday. He arrived home in Scarborough late in the evening from a long day at work and went to the fridge.
Shortly after eating the sandwich, he called it a night. Feeling “mildly uncomfortable” with indigestion, he got up to look for antacid pills. Unable to find any, he shrugged and went back to bed. That’s what guys do. The next morning, as usual, Duguid got on his exercise bike and lifted some weights. After running some errands and getting a haircut, the indigestion flared. He went to a nearby walk-in clinic to get checked out but didn’t like the idea of an hourlong wait, so he picked up some dry cleaning and ran other errands.
But by the end of the day, knowing he had a busy week ahead, common sense kicked in and Duguid went to another clinic.
This time, no waiting. A good thing, as it turned out.
“My blood pressure was high for the first time ever,” says Duguid. An electrocardiogram showed something “amiss.” He was directed to Scarborough Hospital for blood tests, but first went home to get some paperwork to pass the time and grabbed a bagel at Tim Hortons.
“The first blood test found indications I may have had a heart attack. Further tests showed I had a heart attack and it wasn’t as minor as they thought,” he adds. “One of my arteries was 99 per cent clogged with plaque. My main artery, which they call the widow maker, was 80 per cent clogged.”
Through angiograms and angioplasty at the Rouge Valley Health System, Duguid had six stents implanted to open the blockages.
“It didn’t register until days later,” he says. “If it were not for this to happen the way it did, this could have had a very sudden, tragic, unexpected ending.”
The weight loss was not planned, but a happy byproduct of the Mediterranean diet Duguid and his wife, Crystal, have adopted. The couple has two sons, Kennedy, 19, and Jordan, 20.
“It’s a lifestyle change,” Duguid notes, describing how he’s gone from rushing out the door in the morning to get a bagel and a double-double at Tim Hortons to making oatmeal at home with wheat germ, flaxseed, “a ton of blueberries” and a green tea to go.
On this day, his homemade lunch is oven-roasted chicken with a yellow beet and quinoa salad, an orange, a pear and a bottle of water. No more sandwiches and burgers on the fly.
“I eat chicken, fish, vegetables, fruit and nuts. And, really, not a lot beyond that. It sounds like you’re limited but I’m eating real food now, fresher food,” adds Duguid, who tipped the scales at 190 pounds before the heart attack. I never thought I would lose my gut because I’ve had it for a long time,” he says, grinning, before showing off a belt that is several notches tighter on the pants of his blue suit.
The harder changes have been on the job, needing to slow down in the fast-paced world of politics and government while running a busy ministry that controls many of the levers in Ontario’s economy.
“You can’t put in the same hours. You have to delegate more. That’s the piece that I’m learning,” says Duguid, who credits former cabinet minister Gerry Phillips, who withdrew from the Liberal leadership race in 1996 because of a heart condition, with providing sage advice. “He told me you can be more effective if you focus on what’s important.”
With summer here, Duguid knows there won’t be beers on the dock at his Muskoka cottage like in years past, but he’s made the switch to non-alcoholic versions like Budweiser’s new Prohibition Brew, although there will be the occasional pint or glass of wine.
“Changing your eating style is something that I could have — and should have — done more extensively years ago. I am eating as much, or more, and enjoying my food almost as much,” he says, winking at the “almost.”
“Do you miss the chicken wings and beer, do you miss the pizza, do you miss the barbecued steaks? Of course you do. But the food you can eat in a very healthy diet is real food and can be extremely tasty. It just takes a little more work.”
Duguid says he hopes that others read about his experience and become more aware of the need to eat well and live a healthy lifestyle. He now walks and jogs for an hour daily.
“I think 80 per cent of guys would have written off the discomfort I was feeling as just something that was happening and not got checked out,” adds the minister, whose daily medications include blood thinners, blood pressure and cholesterol-fighting pills. He looks to the bright side. “With the weight loss and the eating changes I’m feeling a new level of invigoration and energy that I probably didn’t have before. I have to keep reminding myself to follow the doctor’s orders.”
The new regimen includes Tuesday stops at the Rouge Valley hospital’s cardiac clinic for monitoring, lectures and support to keep “on track.”
And he’s 100 per cent certain what to do if anything like that salami sandwich backlash happens again.
“If there’s something I’m feeling that I’ve never felt before, that’s a sign there’s something wrong and you’d better check it out.”