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Presently, about 12% of the population is 65 years or older and by the year 2030 that figure is expected to reach 21%. In order to promote the well-being of the elderly and to reduce the costs associated with health care demands, increased longevity should be accompanied by ageing attenuation. Energy restriction, which limits the amount of energy consumed to 60-70% of the daily intake, and intermittent fasting, which allows the food to be available ad libitum every other day, extend the life span of mammals and prevent or delay the onset of major age-related diseases, such as cancer, diabetes and cataracts. Recently, we have shown that well-being can be achieved by resetting of the circadian clock and induction of robust catabolic circadian rhythms via timed feeding. In addition, the clock mechanism regulates metabolism and major metabolic proteins are key factors in the core clock mechanism. Therefore, it is necessary to increase our understanding of circadian regulation over metabolism and longevity and to design new therapies based on this regulation. This review will explore the present data in the field of circadian rhythms, ageing and metabolism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cytotoxic, also known as antineoplastic, drugs remain an important weapon in the fight against cancer. This study considers the water quality implications for the Thames catchment (United Kingdom) arising from the routine discharge of these drugs after use, down the drain and into the river. The review focuses on 13 different cytotoxic drugs from the alkylating agent, antimetabolite, and anthracycline antibiotic families. A geographic-information-system-based water quality model was used in the present study. The model was informed by literature values on consumption, excretion, and fate data to predict raw drinking water concentrations at the River Thames abstraction points at Farmoor, near Oxford, and Walton, in West London. To discover the highest plausible values, upper boundary values for consumption and excretion together with lower removal values for sewage treatment were used. The raw drinking water cytotoxic drug maximum concentrations at Walton (the higher of the two) representative of mean and low flow conditions were predicted to be 11 and 20 ng/L for the five combined alkylating agents, 2 and 4 ng/L for the three combined antimetabolites, and 0.05 and 0.10 ng/L the for two combined anthracycline antibiotics, respectively. If they were to escape into tap water, then the highest predicted concentrations would still be a factor of between 25 and 40 below the current recommended daily doses of concern. Although the risks may be negligible for healthy adults, more concern may be associated with special subgroup populations, such as pregnant women, their fetuses, and breast-feeding infants, due to their developmental vulnerability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]