Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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159 of 165 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Response to Owl, October 28, 2001
This is a response to Owl's review of Sept 9, 2001. First let me say that everyone is entitled to his or her opinion. Second, I am a Japanese woman from Tokyo who also lived in Okinawa for several years but I have a very different opinion from Owl. I studied anthropology and wrote my thesis on Okinawan culture so I feel that I have some qualification to comment on The Okinawa Program both as a general prescriptive, self-help book and a scientific work. I can also offer you my interpretation of Okinawa and its culture.
Owl (the Sept 9, 2001 reviewer) sounds like so many other self-proclaimed "experts" on Okinawan culture from abroad. Typically they live in Okinawa 1-3 years (as did Owl), learn very little of the culture (including the language, customs, history), interact on only a superficial basis with the locals, and sometimes learn a little karate. When they leave they consider themselves cultural experts and gurus (his correspondence from a "remote mountain village" in Japan suggests that this applies in his case).
I believe that the Okinawa Program gives a realistic, intriguing account of Okinawan life and culture and valuable "hands-on" health advice. It has hundreds of scientific references so is hardly what I would call "superficial". In fact, the text itself is referenced, so that one can verify all the statements the authors make. This is rare for books written by scientists for a lay audience and I think that helps to explain its appeal to both the lay audience and the scientist. ... .
In one sense, Owl's review is very illuminating because it illustrates the problems of modern day Okinawa, where the youth no longer value as much the old ways and don't eat the traditional diet or practice the traditional martial arts or believe in the native spiritual traditions. In fact, very few Okinawans under the age of fifty even speak the Okinawan language, which is quite distinct from Japanese. Sadly sometimes they cannot speak fluently with their great-grandparents, who may speak only the Okinawan language.
Owl reveals his superficial experience with Okinawan culture when he states "did I ever see older Okinawans out practicing Tai Chi or karate or any other martial art for exercise or anything else? No! " Shoshin Nagamine, one of the giants of Okinawan karate, would turn over in his grave if he read that comment!! I suspect that Owl never bothered to seek out the multitude of martial arts dojos around Okinawa where karate has been nurtured, practiced and spread to every corner of the globe over the past few centuries. So for him they don't exist. Yet, thousands of Okinawan karate dojos exist around the world. The hundreds of thousands of devotees may be surprised to hear that older Okinawans "don't practice the martial arts", especially since their "masters" are usually older Okinawans.
I also suspect that Owl never made it to the traditional villages of rural Okinawa, especially in the Northern half of the main island so he never saw the elders out walking, gardening or participating in traditional dance. To correct Owl once again, the authors never said that masses of Okinawans are doing Tai Chi on the beach but that many engage in traditional dance, which resembles Tai Chi and likely had similar origins and influences from ancient China (and likely offers similar health benefits).
I really had to laugh when Owl said that he never saw karate on the beach in Okinawa. I guess he never made it to the beach on Sunday morning where 97-year-old karate master Seikichi Uehara takes his many pupils through their paces. That doesn't surprise me either. I don't think that I have to ask Owl if he ever participated in a shimisai (picnic with the ancestors at the family tomb) or ask him if he saw the sacred sites on the island where the elders gather to pray for peace and health.
Finally, he does have a good point when he said that other Japanese live a long time too. But if he actually read the Okinawa Program he would see that an important reason that Okinawans live longer is that they have the lowest heart disease, lowest stroke levels and the least cancer in Japan. This is largely related to their overall healthier lifestyle, which includes a higher intake of vegetables, soy products and less salt in the diet, as well as more exercise and cultural traditions such as moai(support groups) that increase social support and may lead to lower suicide rates, among other benefits.
Okinawa goes against the social gradient in terms of having lower socio-economic status and higher life expectancy. This is quite unlike what you see in the rest of Japan or the rest of the world, unlike what Owl would have you believe.
Okinawa leads some other prefectures in Japan for life expectancy by only a few months and others by a few years. As the Okinawans lose their traditional healthy ways the overall lead is closing. To be precise, Okinawans live on average to be 81.2 years, Japanese 79.9 years and Americans 76.8 years. But Okinawans are more active and less disabled as they age and they have over 4 times the number of centenarians as Japan or the U.S. ... .
To sum up; The Okinawa Program is full of useful prescriptive advice and fascinating information but if you are already a self-acclaimed guru who does not wish to come down from your remote mountain village to mingle with the people or you are simply a "know-it-all" then save your money. If you are like me, and want some practical and helpful information on how to live a long, active life, lose some fat, stay active, and learn something about different cultures, including healthy eating patterns, exercise habits and stress reduction then invest in The Okinawa Program. It may be the best investment you make.
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96 of 98 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Lifestyle Lessons of Long-Lived, Healthy People in Okinawa, May 1, 2001
The Okinawa Program deserves more than five stars for its valuable, thoughtful look at how good health can follow from a better lifestyle. This book will undoubtedly become the basis for a change in lifestyle by millions of people. Whether or not it will extend their lives and the length of the healthy period in their lives is something that only time can tell. On the other hand, anyone who follows this advice will probably feel better and have more energy. This book is based on 25 years of research by Dr. Suzuki with those who lived to be over 100 years of age in Okinawa. The Drs. Willcox joined the project in 1994, adding many more measurements and perspectives to what has become an important international research project. The physiological and psychological findings about these centenarians (aged over 100) show them to be healthy, vigorous, and largely free of common Western diseases. The book summarizes the findings, connects the findings to Western research, and outlines ways to follow what was discovered to be associated with better health. The book begins by debunking the idea that there were long-lived people in the Caucasus, Pakistan, and Ecuador with whom similar work could be done. Investigation showed in each case that there was no unusual longeveity in these communities. On the other hand, records dating from the Japanese conquest of Okinawa in 1879 make the Okinawan cases valid. The statistical findings are fascinating. Okinawans live to be over 100 at rates 3 to 7 times more often than Americans. Even more impressive is that the combined rate of heart disease, cancer, and stroke is a small fraction of the American rate. Where one woman in ten will have breast cancer in the United States, the typical Okinawan will probably not even know any one who will get that disease. Mammograms are not even needed as a health screening technique there. Yet, young Okinawans who live a different lifestyle show all the Western diseases. Okinawans who left the area and adopted the lifestyles of the places where they now live experience disease at the same rate as in those locales. The book then dives into the physiological findings. Basically, some Okinawans at 100 have young bodies showing health markers similar to a 40-60 year old in the United States. In fact, they often look 30 years younger than they are. They are physically and mentally active, and do not retire. The bulk of those over 100 still work in the same ways they did when they were younger. The book takes the major statistical differences, and looks for possible clues in the Okinawan lifestyle. The potential causes seem to relate to diet, exercise, spiritual/religious practices, social connections, and mixing Western and Eastern medicine beneficially. The authors go on to suggest changes in the diet recommendations for Americans to reflect this experience, new exercise paths, and a changed approach to lifestyle. The diet recommendations are expressed both in terms of Western-only foods and a mixture of Eastern and Western foods. There is a four week changeover program to help you move from what you do now, to a healthier alternative. As the authors point out, the study itself has some weaknesses. No one can know for sure how much each of these environmental factors contribute. Also, the genetic make-up of Okinawans could mean that results for non-Okinawans could be different. There is also no attempt to adjust for blood type (as the research cited in Live Right 4 Your Type describes). I also think there is a measurement bias towards measurements used by Western scientists looking at certain diseases. For example, I remember Dr. Dean Ornish emphasizing the importance of touching as a factor favoring good health in Love and Survival. This book makes no reference to touching, but I do recall that people in the Philippines (not far from Okinawa) touch more than people in any other country (with favorable results for health and happiness). What do the Okinawans do? The book also contains a lot of recipes. It is beyond the scope of my expertise to comment on them. The book cites many other studies that find similar results within Western cultures. One thing I noticed was that some of these studies have been criticized as being incorrectly conducted by others, yet those criticisms were not presented here. Overall, I found the references to other studies helpful in a directional sense for providing context for the findings. Assuming for the moment that this book is on the right track, isn't it interesting that this information only recently became available? It makes you wonder what other obvious research into having a healthy lifestyle has not been done. Have we just wasted hundreds of billions of dollars ineffectively treating diseases caused by sick lifestyles while hundreds of millions experienced lives unnecessarily shortened by 20-40 years and made unncessarily miserable? If so, what a tragic waste of human potential!
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110 of 122 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Do the Okinawans have the secret of long healthy life?, May 7, 2001
I couldn't wait to see this book. I spent a month in Japan a few years ago (though not on Okinawa. ) I came back 10 kilos lighter, full of energy, and with a chronic foot inflammation completely cured. I felt great. I'd lived exclusively on typical Japanese food for the entire month; lots of raw seafood, seaweed, rice. No sugar and hardly even any fruit. Nothing Western at all. I wasn't hungry, didn't crave anything and had lots of energy and stamina. I could live on this diet happily the rest of my life.But, do the Japanese, especially Okinawans, have the secret of long, healthy life for EVERYONE? Well, the Okinawans have often had a TOUGH life. The Okinawans are responsible for developing some of the most famous martial arts weapons from their hand farm implements. (For example, the famous Nunchucku are rice flails, for removing the husks from rice.) Okinawa has had a long, hard history, and people who survived there were no weaklings. They must have been selected for sturdiness, and no one can know for sure how much the environmental factors and the history of Okinawa contributed to the robustness of the residents there. Also, the genetic make-up of Okinawans is of course different than Westerners. They may thrive on their diet; it may be wrong for others. Not everyone is alike. For example, I already know I do well on fish and vegetables, and not well on wheat and meat and milk. So I would and did do well on this type of diet. Maybe it's best if you read the book and try some of the diet ideas as an experiment. Or read some other books on diet and body type (Ayurvedic or Eat Right 4 Your Type, for example) Find out if the Okinawan Diet matches with your body type or if your doctor recommends such a diet for you. What's REALLY more important is the information about the value of stable, close family ties, daily exercise and a good attitude spiritually. The traditional life of the Okinawans is a far cry from Western life, but it has a lot to offer us. Maybe having dinner together with the entire family as a daily ritual of family closeness is more important than what's on the plate.
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