The Okinawa Way

Dr. Craig Willcox, Ph.D. is a medical anthropologist and gerontologist and internationally recognized expert in healthy aging and public health nutrition. He is currently Assistant Professor at Okinawa Prefectural University–College of Nursing and Co-Principal Investigator of the Okinawa Centenarian Study, a U.S. National Institutes of Health and Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare funded study of the genetic and lifestyle determinants of exceptional longevity. Dr. Willcox is also Research Associate at University of Hawaii’s Pacific Health Research Institute.

Dr. Willcox trained in medical anthropology, gerontology and public health science at the University of Toronto and University of the Ryukyus. He has published and lectured extensively over the past decade in the areas of human ecology and aging, as well as nutritional and public health approaches to successful aging. Dr. Willcox is particularly interested what can be learned from a bio-behavioral (bio-cultural) approach to the study of human aging — linking physiology, culture, and society through extensive fieldwork and rigorous laboratory investigations in order to better understand the dialectic of nature and culture in diverse ecologic and ethnographic settings. His cross-cultural approach to the study of human aging has led him to spend many years living, teaching and doing research in Japan. He speaks fluent Japanese.

Dr. Willcox is a member of several professional societies including the International Epidemiology Association, Japan Society for Public Health, Society for Nutritional Anthropology, Medical Anthropology Society, and Gerontological Society of America. His research work has been supported by the U.S. National Institutes of Health, U.S. National Institute on Aging, Medical Research Council of Canada, University of Toronto, the Japan Foundation and the Japan Ministry of Education, Science, Culture, Sports and Technology, among other sources.

Drs. Willcox are identical twins and have written two best selling books on healthy aging, lectured extensively throughout the world and appeared in numerous national television and radio shows and print media. Their books have been published in over two dozen countries in half a dozen languages. Their work has also been featured in Time Magazine, Newsweek, USA Today, The New York Times, U.S. National Public Radio (NPR), Oprah Winfrey Show, Good Morning America, CBS News, Inside Edition, CNBC (Europe), Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) among other international media.