Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is flanked by U.S. President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping
- Being a world leader comes with a lot of responsibility. It also involves grueling days, difficult decisions, and a consistent amount of high pressure.
- The intensity of these roles can age leaders during their time in office, and because of the scrutiny of modern-day media, there are photos to show these changes.
- These before and after photos show how 15 world leaders, from Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin to Queen Elizabeth, have aged in office.
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Being a president, prime minister, or supreme leader is by no means a guaranteed way to stay youthful.
Election cycles, political compromises, long days, and difficult decisions are just a few of the things world leaders have to deal with on a daily basis.
In 2015, the British Medical Journal published a study comparing elected leaders and runner-ups in 17 countries between 1722 to 2015 to see how hard being a world leader is on the body.
The study concluded that becoming a head of government "substantially" increased the risk of mortality. Candidates who served as a head of government lived about 4 years less after their last election than those who never served.
Here are 30 photos showing how world leaders have aged since they were first elected.