Lukowich sheds light on dark times

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This article was published 31/05/2019 (2291 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Morris Lukowich can tell you several stories of times when he went back into a hockey game after sustaining a serious head injury.

“There’s been times where I got cranked,” said Lukowich, who’s in town for the 40-year reunion of the 1979 Avco Cup champion Winnipeg Jets. “I mean, I got hit one time with the Jets and I could literally not remember my teammates. I remember having to sit down and I was sitting beside Scott Arniel and I asked him who he was and he laughed. I can still remember he said ‘Wow, you really got cranked. I’m Scott Arniel, nice to meet you.’ There was way too many of those.”

“I went through some very, very black depression. And what I now see is I think concussions did have an effect on it, but perhaps in a different area. Maybe around focus, I think”

Lukowich, who turns 63 today, was retained by the Jets when the team was absorbed by the NHL after the 1979 season. The forward from Speers, Sask., would go on to play six more seasons with the Jets before he played his final two between the Boston Bruins and Los Angeles Kings.

Lukowich said life after hockey was not kind to him at first, and he believed the head injuries he sustained had something to do with that. But after making a specific diet change, his life changed for the better.

“I went through some very, very black depression. And what I now see is I think concussions did have an effect on it, but perhaps in a different area. Maybe around focus, I think,” said Lukowich, who had 418 points in 582 NHL games.

“But I really think it’s just the foods we eat. So, I actually read a book called Wheat Belly that talked about the danger of glutens and how, like, it can be messing up the celiac like how it messes up their small intestine, how it could also be messing up people’s minds, their brains. And so, literally, about four years ago, I just went off all glutens and went on a micronutrient through a company called TrueHope. And luckily, my depression has pretty well disappeared.”

Lukowich lives in Calgary and goes to health shows to try and spread the message on how his non-gluten diet has changed his life. However, he still believes his head injuries have affected him in other ways.

“… Since I finished pro hockey, I’ve spent thousands on getting my body back connected through chiropractic and massage therapy. Our bodies just really got beat up”

“I think concussions have affected different areas in my ability to do work. And, even though I get lots done, at times, I’m still working on how to get through distractions and how to actually take one thing and work on it and get it completed,” Lukowich said. “So that’s one of the things I’ll talk about, is that’s where concussions have had an effect on me. But on the depression side, I think it’s more food — and vitamin — related.”

In 2018, Lukowich was one of more than 300 retired hockey players who sued the NHL for failing to protect them from head injuries or warn them of the risks involved with playing. The two parties reached an US$18.9-million settlement, with each player receiving US$22,000 and eligible for up to US$75,000 in medical treatment.

“It’s hard to see what fair is,” Lukowich said of the settlement. “But what is good, though, is there’s been a lot of medical assistance provided. I mean, since I finished pro hockey, I’ve spent thousands on getting my body back connected through chiropractic and massage therapy. Our bodies just really got beat up. I spent lots of money and lots of time working through learning about depression, learning about anxiety and learning how to work through it. And luckily, like I said, I stumbled upon this book, Wheat Belly, that I think really changed my life. It’s sad, I mean, there was a black cloud that moved in and it was not pretty. And it was disabling. So, to get through that, it’s been huge.”

taylor.allen@freepress.mb.ca

Twitter: @TaylorAllen31