Circadian rhythms in the aged: a review

Circadian Rhythms of Activity and Rectal Temperature at Home and in a Hospital: Effects of Lifestyle

“…This latter finding suggests also that "relaxation" at home is a slightly more demanding activity, the requirement for patients in the hospital in the evening to sit in a dimly lit room no doubt contributing to this difference. Similar restrictions of physical activity in institutionalized subjects have been noted by others (8,9). In addition, there exists more daytime napping and a decreased dichotomy between daytime activity and nocturnal sleep in institutionalized patients compared with those living at home (8)(9)(10)(17)(18)(19).…”

“…First, circadian rhythms are produced by a combination of exogenous influences (due to activities that raise body temperature and sleep, which lowers it) and endogenous ones (due to the body clock) (7). Second, patients are more likely than healthy controls to be studied in institutions, or, if both are studied in the same environment, the control subjects will be working individuals and so be required to be more active (8)(9)(10). The outcome of these two factors is that altered circadian rhythms can only rarely be interpreted unambiguously as deriving from an altered clock rather than a different lifestyle.…”

Effect of epithalamin on the rhythm of immune and endocrine systems functioning in patients with chronic coronary disease

“…Thymic hormones enhance the proliferative potential of T cells [2,9,11], but the LBGT values do not change after epithalamin treatment. The results confirm that less intense proliferation of lymphocytes in response to mitogens is one of the most pronounced and stable signs of age-specific changes in the immune system [1].…”

“…variations in illumination and temperature [8,11,12]. Some rhythm parameters change with aging, which is paralleled by the formation of age-associated pathological processes, when the diseases present by that time can cause secondary changes in the rhythms of the functioning of the immune system [1,3,11].…”

Annual Review of Chronopharmacology. Volume 7. Biological Rhythms and Medications. Proceedings of the Conference of Chronopharmacology Held in Nice, France on 12-15 March 1990

“…It has been documented that aging is accompanied by changes in circadian rhythm characteristics (Miles, 1980;Minors, 1981;Casale, 1984;Swoyer, 1989). The most notable changes occur in the shift of acrophase and in the decline in amplitude.…”