WUB Hawaii Meeting
Time: 6:30 pm September 12th, 2013 Thursday
Location: Maple Garden Restaurant 909 Isenberg Street
Speaker: Dr. Craig Wilcox, gerontologist and medical researcher
Topic: Nutrition and Longevity Among Okinawans
Dr. Craig Wilcox – Gerontologist
- Interview with Dr. Craig Wilcox. Source: Island Icons.
Excerpts
When did you first hear about Okinawan longevity?
“While at the University of Toronto I participated in a study investigating how nutrition and other factors were associated with healthy survival. One group we were looking at was Japanese Canadians in the province of Ontario and this is when I first met Toku Oyakawa. Oyakawa-san was 105; he’d been born in Nago City (in northern Okinawa) and later emigrated to Canada. He was living a traditional Okinawan lifestyle in Canada, which suggested that Okinawan health habits could be followed anywhere in the world.”
When did you move to Okinawa?
“In the summer of 1994 I came out to Okinawa on a three-month summer research project. I interned with Dr. Makoto Suzuki, a professor of Community Medicine at the University of the Ryukyus. During this time I met Nakamura-san a healthy 100-year-old man who would later become the oldest person in Japan. After completing my graduate studies back at the University of Toronto I got funding from the Japanese government to work as a researcher at the University of the Ryukyus. In 1999, I became an assistant professor at Okinawa Prefectural University, College of Nursing, then in 2007 I moved to become a professor at Okinawa International University.”