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If you look a little sure-enough for your years , that does n’t needfully intend you have poor health , a new study find .

The determination challenges a long - held idea , said researcher from St. Michael ’s Hospital in Canada .

an older woman taking a selfie

" Physicians have simply bear that their quick assessment of how old a person appear has diagnosticvalue , " Dr. Stephen Hwang , a inquiry scientist at St. Michael ’s and an associate professor at the University of Toronto , say in a command . " We were really surprised to find out that multitude have to bet a decennium old than their actual age before it ’s a reliable sign that they ’re in poor wellness . "

Ninety - nine percentage of mass who look 10 or more class older than their historic period have wretched mental or physical health , the study find oneself . [ Related : effigy Show How Exercise Affects Aging ]

The research worker had 126 citizenry ages 30 to 70 take out a questionnaire that hit their physical andmental health . Then they hire pic of the patients and gave them to 58doctorsto assess how old the patients looked . Doctors then guess how healthy the patients were .

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The doctors were unable to forebode the health position of patients who looked up to five yearsolder than their existent age . But doctors were able to accurately guess the health statuses of patients who await 10 or more year honest-to-goodness than they were , the study said .

physician sometimes make snap judgments about patients’health establish on whether they look oldor young for their geezerhood , Hwang said . But they should n’t assume that people who take care youthful are sizable and people who reckon just a lilliputian older than their years are not , he say .

The study was published Nov. 5 in the Journal of General Internal Medicine .

An elderly woman blows out candles shaped like the number 117 on her birthday cake

This article was provided byMyHealthNewsDaily , a sister site to LiveScience .

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