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Have you ever gone to the doctor and they tell you what’s wrong with you just by looking at your face? This doesn’t work all the time of course, but it does happen. Recent research indicates that your doctor can and probably does perform a quick health assessment just by looking at you. And this has interesting implications for your health tracking efforts at home as well as the future of health assessments.

 

The Theory Behind Evaluating Faces

The idea of detecting illness through the face ifs a fairly simple and intuitive one. People’s faces can tell you a lot about them. It’s not only a good reflection of age, and health levels, it’s also one of the first places that shows any changes in your health. If you catch a cold or a virus, people can usually tell just by looking at you. This may be because of some evolutionary mechanism, perhaps a survival mechanism handled down by the distant past. After all, in the evolutionary past, a sick tribe member could cause serious harm to the rest of the tribe, so it was probably important that the people around them could detect any problems. What’s different now is that scientists and researchers are seeing the value of this kind of understanding and are developing computer programs that can look for these telltale signs of ill health.

 

Health and Attractiveness

Your health levels as reflected through your face may also increase your physical attractiveness. A recent study found that people are more attracted to faces that have obviously markers of physiological health. This makes sense on an evolutionary level, after all if you want to have children and continue your line you need to choose a healthy mate rather than one who might pass on their ill health. This is more evidence that the human face does show cues about the individual’s physical condition that can be used for better health assessments in the present day.

 

Facial Recognition Research

A recent study in Australia used a specially designed computer program to detect a number of health markers in the human face in 270 participants of different ethnicities. The idea is that this kind of software can perform a health assessment that gives users and doctors valid clues about specific physiological disorders. It is not meant to replace medical professionals, technology is advancing but not that fast, but may become a supplement to regular doctor’s visits. With doctors so busy these days, any help that patients can give them in making accurate diagnoses can only increase their chances of getting the right care and decrease the chances of potentially dangerous medical mistakes.

 

What can Facial Recognition Software Measure?

The Australian research team created a program to evaluate people’s face shape and predict their BMI, body fat levels and blood pressure based on that information. The results were impressive. The computer program could predict the health risk of participants with surprising ease and the accuracy rate was significant. This indicates that facial recognition might be a valid way for individuals and medical professionals to evaluate certain markers of personal health without the need for more intrusive procedures. It also means that certain diseases and health conditions could be connected with certain face shapes. If proven accurate, this final point could allow for a more comprehensive health risk assessment for people who have the facial warning signs of these diseases as well as earlier interventions.

 

What this Means for Health Tracking at Home

One day, you may be able to take a photo of your face with your phone and use it to perform a health assessment or evaluate a health risk. This might seem too fantastic to believe, but because certain measures of health can be evaluated through your face shape, skin color and condition, and by evaluating your eyes, the technology probably isn’t far off. This technology would be of great benefit for people who prefer to take control of their health and perform health tracking assessments at home. And it could be another way for patients to ensure that their doctors have all the information they need to diagnose conditions correctly and make good recommendations for improving overall health.

 

If you need help with your home health assessment try HomeLab, the health tracking app that helps you track and record your health metrics.

 

Tags: Health assessment, health risk, personal health, health tracking