Aging is a fact of life, but at the physiological level we don't all age at the same rate. So how to determine our bodies' overall wear and tear? Researchers have found that simple 3-D image scans of people’s faces can determine a person’s “biological age" more reliably than blood samples can. This technology could help doctors assess patients' risk of age-related diseases and evaluate the efficacy of treatments.
To track how aging is written on our faces, scientists studied 332 Chinese individuals, in a range of ages from 17 to 77. Using facial photos researchers mapped each face's biological landmarks like the eyes, nose and mouth as reference points. By measuring the distances between facial landmarks in young and old people, reliable patterns of aging emerged. As people get older, researchers found, the mouth elongates and the nose becomes wider, the corners of eyes droop, and the face starts ...
