The Okinawa Program : How the World's Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health--And How You Can Too
by Bradley J. Willcox, D. Craig Willcox, Makoto Suzuki
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Book Summary Information
Author: Bradley J. Willcox, D. Craig Willcox, Makoto SuzukiEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2002-03-12
ISBN: 0609807501
Number of pages: 496
Publisher: Three Rivers Press
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Book Reviews of The Okinawa Program : How the World's Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health--And How You Can Too
Book Review: A Land of the Immortals, a Shangri-La
Summary: 5 Stars
Old age in America is beset with misery. No matter how much money elderly people have, ill health inevitably attacks and then lingers endlessly, making their final years a living hell.
When the authors (Willcox, Willcox and Suzuki) undertook a twenty-five year study of the phenomenon of healthy longevity in Okinawa, they met their first centenurian, Nakajimasan. Upon approaching his small wooden cottage, they encountered a sprightly man of about seventy preparing to garden, who greeted them with a wave and winning smile. They asked this man where his father was, and to their amazement discovered that this energetic man was the centenarian, Nakajimasan, they sought. They conducted full medical testing and discovered that, after 100 years, there was nothing wrong with his body or mind. He was in perfect health.
After reading this opening, I was hooked.
And the rest of the book lived up to this promise. In meticulously researched chapters, the authors show how a diet emphasizing veggies, fruit, soy, grains, fish and legumes, healthy regular exercise, a relaxed, non-time-pressured yet confident, optimistic and assertive approach to life, social support, universal health insurance and an active spiritual life can lead to amazing health up to and surpassing age 100. The Okinawan centenarians (and those in their 80s and 90s) have astonishingly low rates of cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, dementia, diabetes and obesity. They do not require the extensive medical care elderly Americans need. Yet when the Okinawans immigrate elsewhere or just take on a more western lifestyle (as, unfortunately, the younger Okinawans have done), their life expectancies plummet and western diseases emerge.
Throughout the book, the authors give numerous ways Americans can adopt "the Okinawa way" and add joy and health to their final years (and all the years preceding these.)
In 2005 when I first read this book, I was obese, had unhealthy cholesterol and other blood test levels, looked like a rotund pear, and was hopelessly out of shape. Gradually over the next two years I gravitated toward the Okinawa program and a diet of legumes, soy, fruit, grains, veggies and less meat, dairy and processed foods. I did not follow their exact diet (which would require cooking three meals per day - yeah, right), but I incorporated the principles of the diet into my eating and exercised an hour per day five days a week, mixing weights, aerobics and stretches as these authors advised. I have gone from a tight size 18 to a size 6, now can jog the majority of an hour, and feel energized and light-years younger. This plan is pleasant and easy to follow, unlike my previous rigid diet attempts which required counting carbs, calories, points, fat grams, or whatever.
This is the best health book you will ever read. It will guide you toward the health of the older Okinawans, a place the ancients hauntingly described as "a land of the immortals, a Shangri-La."
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