These pictures may look like an attractive woman in her 20s and her grandmother. But they are said to be the same person – apparently taken just days apart.
这张照片看起来是一个20多岁的美女和她的外婆站在一起,真相是:这两个人是同一个人,而且这张照片的拍摄时间仅仅相隔几天!

The young Vietnamese woman at the centre of the improbable medical case, Nguyen Thi Phuong, claims the transformation may have come about because of an extreme allergy to seafood.
越南女子阮莳芳因对海鲜极度过敏而患上了一种怪病,几天之内从美女变成了老太婆。

Nguyen, 26, says she developed this puffy face and sagging skin in 2008 but was too poor to seek treatment. Earlier this month, doctors said they would examine her free of charge.
现年26岁的阮莳芳说,她从2008年起皮肤开始变得肿胀松弛。但出于家境贫寒而无钱医治。本月初,医生表示可以免费为她治疗。

Mrs Nguyen believes her condition was caused by a life-long allergy to seafood in 2008. She took some medicine bought at a local pharmacy instead of going to the hospital because her and her husband were too poor to afford it. She said: 'After one month of taking the drugs, I became less itchy but hives remained on my skin.
阮莳芳认为怪病源于2008年的一次海鲜过敏。当时,出于贫穷,她没有选择就医,而是去当地的药房买了点药。服药一个月后,瘙痒症状减轻,但是她的脸上却留下了荨麻疹的痕迹。

'Then I switched to traditional medicine and all the hives disappeared, together with my itching. However, my skin began to sag and fold.' Mrs Nguyen then took another kind of traditional medicine to treat her rapid-aging skin problem - but to no avail.
“后来我换了一种传统药物来吃,所有的荨麻疹都消失了,也不感觉瘙痒了。但是,我的皮肤开始变得松弛,还出现了皱纹。” 阮莳芳又接着换其他的传统药物来吃,肌肤迅速老化的问题却没有得到解决。

'The skin on my face, chest and belly have folds like an old woman who has given birth several times although I have never had a child. But the rapid-aging syndrome hasn't affected my menstrual cycle, hair, teeth, eyes and mind.'
我脸部、胸部和腹部的皮肤都已经皱了起来,好像那些生过很多孩子的老年妇女那样,而我到现在还没生过孩子。这种迅速衰老的症状没有影响我的月经周期,我的头发、牙齿、眼睛以及思维也都正常。

Doctors say it may have been the long-term use of traditional medicines that caused the condition as they are often spiked with corticoids. These steroids speed up the effects of the unregulated remedies but could also have triggered the rare skin disease mastocytosis, where the body produces too many mast cells.
医生们认为,这可能是长期服用传统药物引起的疾病。因为传统药物中经常含有肾上腺皮质类脂醇,这些类固醇可以提高药效,也可能引发罕见的皮肤疾病,肥大细胞增多症,即身体制造出过多的肥大细胞。

Nguyen’s husband, carpenter Thanh Tuyen, insists the story is true and his love has not faded for his once-beautiful wife.
阮莳芳的丈夫是位木工,他坚称妻子的故事属实,并说不会因为妻子的美貌逝去而改变对妻子的爱。