Your face might hold clues about your health

UF Health Podcasts

The face is the touchstone of our emotional world. A person’s collection of facial features helps define their identity and make a first impression.

In the future, it also might define health status.

Our mugs are not a uniform temperature where a nose or a cheek and jowl or lower lip are all similarly warm or cold. Instead, our faces emit patterns of heat, invisible to the world without a thermal scan.

A recent study by Chinese researchers used thermal facial scans of 2,800 people and found that heat distribution changes as we age. For example, the nose and cheeks cool as we get older. Meantime, the forehead and the skin around the eyes might warm up.

Scientists can use this heat map to estimate someone’s age. That isn’t really a big deal. We’ve got driver’s licenses and birth certificates for that. The more significant insight comes when a visage’s temperatures doesn’t match someone’s real age.

If a 40-year-old’s scan reveals a pattern resembling what would be expected in a 65-year-old’s countenance, that could spell trouble.

The researchers say the thermal scan could accurately predict some diseases with high accuracy. Their scanning model, which they call ThermoFace, has an excellent record of spotting diabetes, hypertension, and fatty liver disease. And it is often faster than other diagnostic techniques.

The researchers envision a day when the scans might be routine at a doctor’s visit, the way thermometers are today. Scans would be especially useful in remote areas where medical testing equipment is lacking.

So, not feeling well?

The diagnosis might be in your face.