Why do our bodies grow taller as we age?
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They slowly grow towards their “ideal” height, if they started out at the adult height they would never be able to be born.
Generally, we don’t – only during our early years of growth do we get taller. Then we gradually become shorter due to compression of the spine due to gravity as we age further.
90-year-olds are noticeably shorter than they were at 25.
All long bones when you’re a foetus start off as cartilage, and then harden into bone as they get bigger. While you’re young, your long bones still have a thin line of cartilage on the ends of them called the epiphyseal plate.
In response to growth signals, like hormones and other growth factors, the cartilage cells (called chondrocytes) in that epiphyseal plate divide. One cartilage cell goes down into the long part of the bone, and the other cell goes up into the end of the bone, and they then die and harden into bone. Cell by cell, the bone gets longer and you get taller.
We don’t know precisely why, there’s lots of evidence it’s likely due to the influence of oestrogen, but eventually (around the age of 20-25), the cartilage cells in the epiphyseal plate run out of steam and also harden, and your bones stop growing lengthways.
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