• Question: Why do we stop growing at a certain age and stay that age during your whole life?

    Asked by lolypop to Amar, Ana, Andrea, Leah, Matt on 11 Mar 2014.
    • Photo: Anastasia Wass

      Anastasia Wass answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Your body releases a growth hormone that makes it grow. When you go through puberty your body releases lots of this hormone which is why you grow so much when you’re a teenager. When you get older your body releases less of this hormone, just enough to keep all your cells alive but not enough to make all of them grow excessively. When you get really old you can shrink!

    • Photo: Andrea Hanvey

      Andrea Hanvey answered on 11 Mar 2014:

      Yes hormones during puberty give teenagers that final growth spurt, with girls stopping growing by the age of 16 and boys as late as 20….I did read somewhere once that your ears and nose keep growing though!

    • Photo: Leah Fitzsimmons

      Leah Fitzsimmons answered on 18 Mar 2014:

      Why and how we grow is probably all down to evolution. For women to carry babies in their womb they have to be relatively small compared an adult, but tallness would have been advantageous to our ancestors to allow them to reach the best food and see predators coming. So when children are young and need to be looked after it is best for them to be small (so they can be carried and hide easily), then as soon as they can look out for themselves (around puberty) they grow to full height over the space of just a few years. Then we stop getting taller because growing takes up a lot of energy from the rest of the body!

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