HEBE Project - Healthy Aging Versus Inflamm-aging: the Role of Physical Exercise in Modulating the Biomarkers of Age-associated and Environmentally Determined Chronic Diseases

The main objective of this clinical trial is to test the effects of the personalized intervention based on physical exercise, on clinical variables and circulating markers, in a population of employees of the University of Milan (UMilan). The HEBE study will include two phases: PHASE 1: All UMilan employees will be asked to voluntarily complete an anonymous online questionnaire, in order to gather information about their lifestyle (physical activity, diet, cigarette smoking, etc) (zero time: T0); at the end of the compilation, indications on how to improve the lifestyle will be provided. These indications will also be present and available for consultation in a special section of the site on the "HEBE" site, with UMilan domain (www.hebe.unimi.it). After 6 months, all UMilan employees will receive a second invitation to voluntarily complete the same questionnaire, in order to evaluate any changes, in terms of lifestyle improvement (time one: T1). PHASE 2: 100 eligible subjects who have expressed their availability in the initial questionnaire, will be identified to undergo a lifestyle improvement protocol based mainly on the prescription of a personalized exercise program, which will define modalities, intensity, duration, frequency and progression of the exercise. For each subject, at T0 and T1 (after 6 months), biological samples will be collected (blood, urine, saliva and nasal swab), which will be used to: i) set up a biobank shared by the members of the HEBE consortium; ii) identify biomarkers able to monitor the effect of physical exercise on the characteristics of the frailty under examination. Furthermore, both at T0 and T1 questionnaires will be completed and carried out clinical evaluations (anamnesis, physical examination, tests for the study of the autonomic nervous system, bio-impedance test, evaluation/estimate of maximal oxygen consumption, ECG).