Bizarre: Woman Who Says She Went From Age 23 To 73 In ‘A Few Days’

Rapid ageing: A mystery condition has apparently caused Nguyen Thi  Phuong's face to sag and wrinkle over a matter of day. She is pictured aged 21 on the left and 26 on the right

Doctors have been left baffled by a strange condition which appears to have caused a 23-year-old woman to age 73 years in a matter of days. Nguyen Thi Phuong, from Vietnam, now looks like a septugenarian after the affliction took hold in 2008 leaving her with a puffy face and sagging skin.

However her husband, carpenter Nguyen Thanh Tuyen says his love has not faded for his once beautiful wife, who is now 26. She has always worn a mask in public to hide her appearance from prying eyes, but she has now sought help from doctors to see if they can reverse the ‘ageing’ effect.

Our love hasn't faded: Tuven (pictured) said he still loved his wife
but they hadn't had children as their lives were too difficult

Displaying photos of a beautiful 21-year-old woman on her wedding day in 2006, Mrs Nguyen said: ‘Five years ago, I was rather pretty and not so ugly like this, right?’

Mrs Nguyen believes her condition was caused by a life-long allergy to seafood. She said she had suffered a particularly bad reaction in 2008. ‘I was really itchy all over my body. I had to scratch even while sleeping.’ Phuong said she took some medicine bought at a local pharmacy instead of going to the hospital because her and her husband Tuyen, now 33, were too poor to afford it.

THE MYSTERY CONDITION EXPLAINED

It could be.... Lipodystrophy This is a rare syndrome which causes a layer of fatty tissue beneath the surface of the skin to disintegrate while the skin itself continues to grow at a startling pace It has no cure and leaves victims with loose folds of skin on their bodies as well as wrinkled faces and features of people much hold. Only 2,000 people are thought to have the condition

Or it might be.... Cushing’s Syndrome  This can be triggered if a person has very high levels of a hormone called cortisol in their blood. Common symptoms include weight gain, rounding of the face due to deposits of fat developing there and thinning of the skin.  It often occurs as a side effect of treatment with corticosteroids. Women are five times more likely to develop endogenous Cushing’s syndrome than men, with most cases affecting people who are 25 to 40 years old.