How does your body make the correct amount of blood as you grow from adolescence to adulthood?

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I vaguely know about how blood is made, but what stops the body from making way too much? And if the person isn’t done growing, how does the amount of blood increase until adulthood then not keep going? I’m probably overthinking this, I just have a lot of time to think at work. Thank you.

Edit: Thank you everyone for answering my question. I really appreciated the mix of simplified and more detailed responses. This was such a great opportunity to learn from experts, and you made me want to learn more. Also, you answered my follow up questions before I got around to asking them, so thank you for that, too.

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5 Answers

Anonymous 0 Comments

Your kidneys sense if blood volume is too high or low and will produce more or less urine to compensate

Your kidneys also produce a hormone that tells your bones to make more red blood cells in case they’re low as well.

Red blood cell production is very dependant on a number of factors and minerals you need in your diet, otherwise you can get any number of different types of anaemia (when you don’t have enough red blood cells)

Maintaining blood volume is also a massive headache too, because it involves huge flowcharts’ worth of positive and negative feedback loops in terms of how your body detects it and then acts on it

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