believe it or not - she's 26
At 21, she looked like a Vietnamese princess on her wedding day. Now 5 years later she’s only 26 but her body has aged 50 years. And it happened in only a matter of days.
It happened in 2008, when Nguyen was 23. She thinks it was started by her allergy to seafood. Extremely itchy from an allergic reaction Nguyen says she took over the counter medicine from the pharmacy because they were too poor to pay for a doctor’s examination.
5years earlier - 21 years old
The itching didn’t stop so she tried a traditional medicine. That’s when the itching stopped but the sagging of her face came in it’s place – followed by wrinkles.
Nguyen says, “’After one month of taking the drugs, I became less itchy but hives remained on my skin. Then I switched to traditional medicine and all the hives disappeared, together with my itching. However, my skin began to sag and fold.’
Doctors can’t figure out what has caused the rapid aging. Some think it’s because of the traditional medicine which might have had corticoid’s and that can lead to swelled face and abnormal growth in sections of skin. Others think it might be Cushing’s Syndrome or Lipodystrophy, a rare condition that causes the fatty tissue under the skin to disintegrate while the skin keeps growing at a faster than normal rate. There’s even some that think Nygeun is suffering from a syndrome that is as of yet unknown and unnamed.
Whatever it is it hasn’t hindered the love her husband has for her. The 33-year old carpenter, Thanh Tuyen, says “I married Phuong when she was a beautiful woman. I have followed her through her disease and have never been shocked at all. It’s not easy to talk about one’s own marital affairs. Just simply understand that I still love her very much.”
It’s because of this love that Ngyeun preservers. Until recently, she always wore a mask in public. Now she’s willing to let the world know of her illness in hopes she’ll be able to find a cure. [Source]
Could it be “Progeria?”
in other news — Batboy found in Batcave.