Why do our bodies grow taller as we age?
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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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