Being beautiful might have many benefits, but immunity to disease and guards against poor health are not traditionally those considered. However, it has been revealed that many people may find attractiveness synonymous with health.

A study has shown that a pleasing face can increase perceived signs of an individual's physical health and therefore suitability for mating, even though the two are not related.

S. Michael Kalick of the University of Massachusetts at Boston and his co-workers found that participants in their study mistakenly rated extremely handsome or pretty people as healthier than their plainer peers, even though attractive people exhibited no tendency toward better overall health or greater resistance to infectious diseases at any point in their lives.

Kalick's group relied on archived health data for 164 men and 169 women born between 1920 and 1929. Most of these study participants came from white, middle-class families. Medical exams and histories were obtained annually from age 11 through 18, once between age 30 and 36, and once between age 58 and 66.

Male and female participants judged the attractiveness of each volunteer's face from photographs taken at age 17 to 18, and agreed closely in their assessments of each photo.

A second group of participants then examined the photos and ranked their perception of each volunteer's overall health as a teen, young adult, and older adult.

Those rated most attractive by the first group people drew overly positive estimates of their health as teenagers and adults from the second group.

Volunteers who fell in the bottom 25 percent of attractiveness ratings evoked mistakenly negative health predictions. Participants made fairly accurate health judgments only for participants in the middle range of attractiveness.

The archived data held no clues to any link between aspects of reproductive health, such as fertility problems or miscarriages among women, and facial attractiveness.

Other elements of sexual attractiveness, such as the waist to hip ratio in women, can be used as a more accurate measure of a person's risk of developing serious health conditions. Research shows that people with "apple-shaped" bodies (with more weight around the waist) face more health risks than those with "pear-shaped" bodies who carry more weight around the hips.

Australian Cosmetic Surgery Magazine