Okinawan longevity secret's out
By David
Allen, Stars and Stripes
Chiyomi Sumida / Stars and Stripes
Harumi Ota, who was 99 when this photo was taken in September 1999, says she's not
revealing the secret of her longevity. |
Trapped in rush-hour traffic on Highway 330, car windows closed tight because of
exhaust fumes and a torrential rain, it’s hard to consider Okinawa the “true
Shangri-la.”
But that’s what the subtropical island is called in a book that has rocketed up
the best-seller lists since its release May 1. “The Okinawa Program: How the
World’s Longest-Lived People Achieve Everlasting Health — and How You Can
Too” reached No. 12 for nonfiction books on the Wall Street Journal’s list in
mid-May.
The well-written tome examines why more people per capita live to be 100 here than
anywhere else, and why heart disease and many kinds of cancer are practically unheard of
in the archipelago.
“The main purpose of this book is to show people how to age healthily,” said
one of the authors, Dr. Makoto Suzuki.
“Modern medicine is allowing more and more people to live longer. But it is an
unhealthy long life, and that’s not good.”
The secret is really no surprise — you’ll live longer and be healthier if you
eat a low-fat diet, exercise regularly and
adopt a low-stress lifestyle.
What “The Okinawa Program” does is show how such a lifestyle really works.
Tenryu Taba, a 104-year-old Buddhist monk in Itoman and a subject of the study, said
the secret to his long life is his Okinawan diet and the devotion of his young wife, now
86 years old.
Chiyomi Sumida / Stars and Stripes
Tenryu Taba, left, was 102 years old when this photo was taken in 1999. The Buddhist monk
still sings and plays the "sanshin." |
In an interview with Stars and Stripes in 1999, Taba said he got up at 5 a.m. every
morning and chanted a sutra, or prayer. He also taught students how to play the sanshin,
an Okinawan banjo, and sings traditional songs in a loud voice at public gatherings.
Taba’s morning ritual and singing are a tribute to his mother, killed in the
Battle of Okinawa 56 years ago.
“She told me how much she liked my singing and that she wanted me to sing for her
every day, even after she died,” he said. “You have to pursue your mission in
life with a strong willpower.
The three scientists studied more than 600 Okinawan centenarians and countless other
“youngsters” in their 80s and 90s. Willcox often would visit only to discover
they were out farming, playing a croquetlike game of gate ball or walking four miles
before breakfast.
The 25-year study clearly showed that genetics is not the key factor, said Suzuki, a
fit 67 years old. “The theory in the field of gerontology is that longevity is
two-thirds lifestyle, onethird genetics. But we’re not so sure it’s even as high
as one third.”
Proof of their theory is the fact that Okinawans who leave the island and adopt Western
lifestyles don’t live as long. “Okinawa women in Brazil, who adopt Brazilian
diets and way of life, have a 17-year shorter life expectancy,” Suzuki said.
He is worried that the “ Okinawa Way” is already losing ground on the island.
“The younger people, especially in the cities, are eating more fast foods and
exercising less,” he said.
The authors found that the Okinawan diet, rich in soy, fish, vegetables, fruit and
whole grains, plays a large part, along with moderation. Okinawans average 500 less
calories per day. It’s a diet that keeps the arteries unclogged.
And it’s not a fad diet. You won’t be restricted to eating seaweed and the
warm brick of tofu.
About the book
“The Okinawa Program: How the World’s Longest-Lived People Achieve
Everlasting Health — And How You Can Too,” by Dr.
Makoto Suzuki, Dr. Bradley J. Willcox and Dr. D. Craig Willcox, Clarkson Potter
Publishers, New York,
$24.95.
“Every day is a good day if you appreciate and humbly accept the things
surrounding you.”
There’s a stone marker near a beach in northern Okinawa that welcomes visitors to
the village of Ogimi: “At 70 you are but a child, at 80 you are merely a youth, and
at 90, if the ancestors invite you into heaven, ask them to wait until you are 100 —
and then you might consider it.”
“The phrase could easily be the state motto of Okinawa, a Japanese prefecture
where energetic great-grandparents live in their own homes, tend their own gardens, and on
weekends might be visited by grandchildren who, in the West, would qualify for senior
citizen pensions,” the authors write in the first chapter.
“People are healthy, active and appear youthful beyond their years,” they
state. “The word ‘retirement’ does not even exist in the traditional
Okinawan dialect.
“If it sounds a bit like Shangrila, that’s because, in a way, it is.”
The book is authored by Suzuki, a cardiologist and chairman of the Department of
Gerontology at Okinawa International University; Bradley J. Willcox, geriatrics fellow in
the Division on Aging at Harvard Medical School; and D. Craig Willcox, a medical
anthropologist and gerontologist and assistant professor at Okinawa International
University.
Suzuki is the principal investigator of the Okinawa Centenarian Study, a 25-year
analysis of Okinawans sponsored by the Japanese Ministry of Health. The Willcox brothers,
twins from Ontario, Canada, joined the study seven years ago.
Craig Willcox was so enamored with the Okinawan way of life that he married a public
health nurse from Kume Island and stayed.
“It all began seven or eight years ago when I read about a Japanese immigrant in
Ontario who was 107 years old and attributed his long life to sticking to the Okinawa way
— simple foods, regular exercise and a slower, spiritual pace,” Craig Willcox
said from a cramped office at the university. “My brother and I were eager, young
grad students at the University of Toronto, studying nutrition.
We found his story interesting and tried to get in touch with him. But for a while,
every time we called he wasn’t there and we’d think, ‘Oh my God, he’s
died.’
“Then his wife would tell us he was out fishing — at 107 years old! So we
came out here one summer to find out what the secret was, met Doctor Suzuki and got
hooked.”
Some of the recipes included in the book’s four-week “ Turnaround Plan”
are pretty mouthwatering. Breakfasts include Wild West omelets, banana smoothies and
blueberry pancakes. For lunch there are rice balls with salmon, Paradise Burgers and
Shangri-la Spinach Lasagna.
And for dinner? Try stuffed green peppers, Shuri Shrimp Salad, stir-fry rice with
watercress and tuna, or Beer Crepes.
“It’s hard for people to go through lifestyle changes, so we’ve tried to
make it easier by tailoring the diet for Western palate,” Willcox said.
“But for the more daring, we’ve included what we call the East/West Track,
which is for people who are a little more adventurous and want to try the more traditional
Okinawan foods.”
It’s at that point in the conversation that a visitor notes that along with the
green tea traditionally offered guests on Okinawa, there is a plate of chocolate chip
cookies. Suzuki had been taking small bites out of his cookie as he talked about foods
rich in “ hearthealthy omega-3 polyunsaturates.”
Willcox, a slender 39-year-old, laughs. “We never say you have to be so strict you
can’t indulge sometimes.”
Or as the book states: “It’s important to note this is a graduated healing
prescription and is meant to be flexible …
Remember that it is not about accomplishing more in less time, but rather about
focusing on your journey.”
The journey also involves regular exercise.
“Most of us are aware of the healthy benefits of regular exercise, yet fewer than
40 percent of North Americans actually practice it,” Willcox said. “
Okinawans, however, are constantly active.”
It is not uncommon on Okinawa to drive to work early in the morning to find scores of
people taking long walks. And many older Okinawans continue the practice of martial arts
and traditional Okinawan dances far into their eighth and ninth decades.
The book includes simple tai chi and stretching exercises to get started. It also
recommends taking brisk walks, 15 minutes three times a week, to start.
The third leg of the “Okinawa Program” is a spiritual path that combines bits
of Taoism, Confucianism and Okinawa’s unique native spirituality.
Part of the “spiritual path” is actually just relieving stress by slowing
down. On Okinawa, people move to what is called “Okinawa time.” If the party
starts at 8, most Okinawan guests will start showing up at nine. And those who arrive at
10 or 11 are not embarrassed by their lateness.
Willcox said it’s an attitude of “no rush, no worries.”
“North Americans, in contrast, seem to suffer from a hurry-up sickness,” he
said.
“And that can lead to the kinds of stress that lead to dementia,” Suzuki
said.
Harumi Ota, 101, of Tomigusuku lives the “Okinawa Program.” When interviewed
in 1999 she said she still likes to dance and knit and never forgets to put on her makeup
every day.
“I just like to work,” she said. When asked about her secret to living such a
lively old age she put a finger to her lips.
“I’m not telling.”
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