About

Dana K Cassell
Dana K. Cassell

Hi, and pleased to meet you – or to see you once again if we’ve met before. I’m Dana and I’m so excited to be the editor and frequent writer for AgeZap.com.

I’ve been writing, editing and fact-checking about health and wellness since 1997.  My first foray into what makes us feel better and stay well was researching articles for several trade journals in the medical field, but especially for Drug Topics. Over several years, I talked to a lot of medical experts, especially researchers involved in developing new drugs, pharmacists helping people manage their health, and various government and association officials.

The more I learned, the more my fascination with health and wellness grew. So when the opportunity arose to research and co-author The Encyclopedia of Obesity and Eating Disorders for Facts On File, it was a definite “let’s do it!” From there, over the years, I’ve added a number of health titles to the Facts On File catalog. (Instead of taking up space here, if you’re interested, you can see the list below.)

A funny thing happens when you research and write about health and medical issues — you begin to pay more attention to your own issues and situation. And, oh, yes — sometimes you begin to imagine all kinds of things!

But it was becoming apparent my increasing weight was not my imagination. If you’ve “matured” into or past those middle years, you likely know what I was going through. (Several reasons account for this mid-life weight gain, which we will discuss on AgeZap.com.)

Even when I had to up-size my jeans — and then up-size again — I put off worrying about it. But then it became uncomfortable to climb the stairs to my office. That got my attention. As did the scale when I could see that about 50 pounds had slowly crept onto my lifelong slender body! So I looked a little more closely at the research I had gathered while writing that Obesity book.  And I changed what I was putting into my body … plus looked at the calories I was — or wasn’t — burning.

Bottom line: The first year I lost 34 pounds, then over time some more (with a few glitches here and there), until I settled in with my “younger days” weight. And today, 16 years later, I’m holding that weight — 53 pounds less than 16 years ago! And I still have my mid-afternoon dish of ice cream and enjoy my chocolate.

But AgeZap is NOT about losing weight or exercising — except hold on! Research has discovered that weight and exercise and nutrition DO affect our brains as we age.

Who knew! So, yes, over time, we will talk about that. I will use my own experience along with what the research tells us, plus ask the experts how and why what we eat and how we use that energy affects our memory and helps us not only live longer, but age better.

Then there are all the “tricks” and techniques to keep our brains aging smarter.

I love to do crossword puzzles; I do one every night as part of my after-dinner routine. It will help my memory cells work better, right? Not exactly. But there are things we can do to help. So we’ll talk about those on AgeZap — what works, how and why it works. And, hey, those crossword puzzles do help our “word smarts”; so don’t stop doing them!

And then there’s sleep.

Or lack thereof as we get older! And how does that affect our brains and memory as we age? Yep, it does. I hate to think about all those nights I purposely burned the midnight oil. How much later damage did that do? And insomnia is no fun at all. Following a month of my most insomnia-nights ever, I’ve endured it only once the past two months! It will be interesting to explore the why of that! And we will do so here on AgeZap. Let’s get some answers from the research and the experts. 

And the stress of it all . . .

Have you any idea what stress does to your brain cells? It affects memory and many other brain functions, like mood and anxiety. Imagine what’s happened to the collective “global brain” during the COVID pandemic! So, yes, we will talk about stress and the brain and memory — and what we can do about it.

So that’s what we’re about here on AgeZap:

  • How to stay sharp while living better longer 
  • How best to deal with memory glitches … and what they mean
  • How to age well (There’s nothing wrong with aging — it’s better than the alternative!)
  • How to use nutrition, learning, music, movement, and so much more to zap those gremlins of aging — but with proven science and not with fads or junk science
  • How to avoid the “memory” scams — oh, they are out there!
  • Basically, we’re about improving your mental acuity — good to do at any age

I’ll be sharing what the scientific studies tell us, what I’ve learned through experience about what helps, and we’ll see what the experts have to say about brain health and wellness as we grow older and better.

I hope you’ll find it as fascinating as I do to learn why and how some people continue to flourish, play, learn, work, and contribute well into their 90’s — and even beyond. And how you and I can join them.

And if you have any questions we can try to find the answers to, or when you have suggestions to share, please do let me know on post comments or contact me directly.

Health & Science books authored or co-authored by Dana K. Cassell

In addition, I have been doing daily fact-checking for Healthline News since January 2015