- INSPIRE is a vast study, overseen by the Gérontopôle of the Toulouse University Hospital, which consists in determining the real biological age of people.
- The goal is to identify the biological markers of aging and find possible preventive or curative treatments to age in good health.
- For this, the Gérontopôle Research Center is looking for 1,000 volunteers, from 30 to 100 years old, who will be scrutinized and monitored for ten years.
- 20 Minutes followed Jean-Louis on his first day of volunteering for this race against time.
Brown puffer jacket, red umbrella, determined look of the inveterate walker. On this cloudy morning in Toulouse, Jean-Louis, 79, enters the Cité de la Santé, under the Dome of La Grave hospital. He is told "often" that he is not his age. But time catches up with him. "For two years, I may have forgotten names," he says. And his date is precisely intended to determine his real age. Not that of civil status but its biological age.
Jean-Louis is one of the precious grains of sand, one among a thousand, which will help the researchers of the INSPIRE program, piloted by the Gérontopôle * of the Toulouse University Hospital, to become masters of clocks. This vast study, which will last ten years, aims to identify the "biological markers" of aging, so as to understand why we are unequal in the face of the ravages of time. And to make everyone benefit from the most “robust” secrets of youth, those about which they said with a touch of jealousy that they do not age.
“Our two major objectives are to work on healthy aging and the maintenance of intrinsic capacities defined by the World Health Organization, in other words memory, mobility, hearing, vision, food and l 'mood', details Sophie Guyonnet, the practitioner who is piloting the project at the Gérontopôle research center, under the leadership of Professor Bruno Vellas. With as a luxury stallion, this unprecedented cohort of 1,000 volunteers that Jean-Luc has just integrated in two days, almost on a whim.
A successful “chair vacuum” in 9 seconds
The Toulousain has just passed his first full half-day check-up, which he will have to undergo once a year for ten years. Between a breakfast and a lunch on the spot, one took blood to him, hair, one measured the elasticity of its skin. Catherine Takeda, the team's geriatrician, tested her famous intrinsic abilities in eight minutes. She whispered words to him to determine if it is hard on the sheet and Jean-Louis performed remarkably at the “empty chair”, getting up and sitting down 5 times in nine seconds. "How much is the record?" ", He tried. "It's 14 seconds to worry," replied the geriatrician.
This universal test, he will have to reproduce it at home, every four months, and enter his results either in his paper logbook, or, from February, on his smartphone app. And if a decline is identified in one area, Jean-Louis will be taken care of immediately to try to reverse the trend as quickly as possible. It is give and take. It helps the Gérontopôle to complete its "organic collection", "anonymized" and in return, it benefits from health monitoring with baby onions. "I like the idea of participating in a medical study and it's also reassuring to be followed from all angles," he summarizes.
The Gérontopôle gives itself two years to bring together its 1,000 volunteers (see box), from 30 (soon 20) to 100 years. Whether you are at university or in a retirement home, it is up to you to join Jean-Louis in this race against time.
* With Inserm, CNRS and Toulouse 3 University - Paul-Sabatier
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volunteers
If you are between 30 and 100 and you want to volunteer or gather additional information on the study, you can reach Lauréane Brigitte at 05 61 77 7004 (brigitte.l@chu-toulouse.fr) or Agathe Milhet at 05 61 77 71 15 (milhet.a@chu-toulouse.fr)
- Old age
- Toulouse
- Health
- science