Meet Hyomyung Shin. Sitting in his PJs in his bedroom, you’d be forgiven for thinking he’s yet to hit his teens.
But, according to Korean news site Koreaboo.com, he’s a 26-year-old man.
Yes, we’re a *little* sceptical too.
Dubbed the Peter Pan of South Korea, Shin says he enjoys drinking beer, going on dates, and clubbing on the weekends. But, he says, he hasn’t yet hit puberty, because he suffers from a rare condition known as ‘Highlander Syndrome’.
The condition has apparently caused his body to age at a very slow – almost imperceptible – rate.
Shin, who is just 163cm tall (5ft 4in) and still has baby-soft skin, is seen in a documentary for a local TV channel showing off his ID, which seemingly proves he was born in 1989.
As well as discussing his love for actress Scarlett Johansson in the clip, he is seen getting ready for a night on the town. He puts on a suit and then heads out to a cafe for a date.
He also shows off pictures from when he was growing up – he appeared to develop normally until his pre-teens when he suddenly stopped growing.
Despite his condition, Shin says he is in good health.
It’s admittedly difficult to prove the authenticity of the documentary’s claims (we’re not completely convinced they haven’t just found a 10-year-old with a fake ID). And there’s little information around about Highlander Syndrome, which isn’t an officially recognised term.
However, a handful of others in the world are believed to have the condition, which some researchers have claimed could hold the secret to eternal youth.
The mysterious syndrome, where ageing slows to a negligible rate, was the subject of an ABC News documentary in 2013.
At the time, medical researcher Richard F. Walker suggested that understanding the condition could be the key to unlocking ‘biological immortality’.
‘If we could identify the gene and then at young adulthood we could silence the expression of developmental inertia, find an off-switch, when you do that, there is perfect homeostasis and you are biologically immortal,’ he said.
However, he added that this wouldn’t mean people would never die. Disease and accidents would still affect life span.
