3-D Face Scans Reveal Your Real Age and Possible Health Risks

   By SheSpeaksTeam  Apr 06, 2015

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Your future health and the way you will age may literally be written all over your face. A new study suggests that by analyzing facial scans doctors can predict things like life expectancy and even possible health risks.

NBC News reports about the study from the Chinese Academy of Sciences and the Max Planck Partner Institute in Shanghai that suggests using 3-D facial scans may be a very accurate way of predicting how we will age. By analyzing all of the lines and wrinkles on a face scientists are able to determine a person’s “physiological age” by the image alone.

The study’s senior researcher, Jing-Dong Han, explains just how accurate the 3-D scans can be at predicting how well we are aging. Han says, “3-D facial images can really tell your biological age. It's really more accurate than a physical exam.”

Researchers involved in the study found a correlation between biological markers in our blood and aging of the face. Interestingly, women with older looking faces also tend to have higher levels of “bad cholesterol” than those with younger looking faces.

Some markers of an older face as documented by the researchers were having a widened nose, a narrower forehead, an increase in the distance from the nose to the mouth and dropping at the corners of the eyes. Researchers found that people younger than 40 can look up to 6 years older or 6 years younger on average. So if you look 6 years older than you are, that is your body’s true age. Researchers believe this type of knowledge may help in the future so doctors can give treatment based on physiological age rather than chronological age.

What do you think of the new study that suggest 3-D facial scans can predict physiological age and possible health risks?

Do you think doctors may one day incorporate this type of testing into our healthcare?