This man looks a decade younger than his real age! Know why

Tomislav Jurcec has a fault with his pituitary gland at the base of his brain, which controls growth and ageing.

Photo Credit: Tomislav Jurcec/Facebook

New Delhi: A 23-year-old man named Tomislav Jurcec from Crotia looks at least a decade younger than his real age because he suffers from a rare health condition.

According to a report in Daily Mail, Jurcec has a fault in his pituitary gland at the base of his brain, which controls growth and ageing.

The gland is about the size of a pea and located behind the bridge of the nose and below the base of the brain. It releases hormones growth and puberty hormones, among others, directly into the blood stream.

As per the reports, pituitary tumours are very uncommon as one in 1000 adults have this rare conditon. Sometimes a defected or faulty gene may also be a contributing factor.

The 23-year-old man did not let the condition affect his life. Infact, his diminutive size has helped him gain work as a part-time actor and even landed a role in the highly successful TV show Game of Thrones.

Jurcec is not the only one known to live with the condition. A girl named Zeng Yushan from China who was born in 1994 stopped growing at the age of seven because she was diagnosed with a tumour on her pituitary gland, which caused a deficiency in growth hormones.

Ashley Grossman, professor of endocrinology at Oxford University, told Daily Mail, 'Now we have artificial growth hormones, that can be injected once a day, to treat this condition'.