Can I Grow Taller After 21? How?
No two people are alike. We don’t reach puberty at the same time, and we don’t quit growing simultaneously.
No one can tell how tall someone will grow to be or until what age they will grow.
It depends on your own growth cycle.
While going through puberty, teens usually have many developing changes in their body as growth surges and muscles change shape.
There is no exact age at which men and women stop growing in height. In some cases, once women attain puberty between 13–16 years old, they stop growing taller. Men hardly grow in height after reaching ages 20 to even 25.
Although human growth depends on factors like genes, food, climate, and health conditions, biologically, men grow taller than women. That’s why there are specific reasons for the height difference.
Women stop growing earlier — after 16 years old — after the puberty period, the long bones stop growing in height due to closing epiphyseal plates.
Growth plates (epiphyseal plates) are new bone creation sites responsible for making you taller.
It is difficult to predict precisely when each growth plate will close because different bones stop growing at different times.
However, if the growth plates are closed, there is no way to reopen them again.
Besides, the endocrine glands’ effect has a function in determining human beings’ height. The endocrine system is a system of glands that produce hormones. Our body uses hormones to control growth, development, metabolism, mood, and other functions. Normal growth is influenced by several hormones:
- Growth hormone which made in the pituitary gland (lat. hypophyse)
- Sex hormones (testosterone or estrogen) which are essential for growth during puberty
- Thyroid hormone
Human growth stops in a few years after growth and sex hormones are produced in larger amounts.
In other words, the onset of puberty determines how tall you become because the growth plates in the bones are closing under the influence of sex hormones.
The onset of puberty varies tremendously and directly depends on genetics (if you come from a family with tall people or not) and how much protein you take in. In world developing countries, people often have stunted growth because of a lack of protein. On the other hand, people who have an early onset of puberty can also have a short stature because their growth plates close early.
Sometimes over-secretion or under-secretion can lead to gigantism or dwarfism. Again the mean heights of different ethnicities all over the world differ. Therefore, the reasoning relating to growth in height depends on the parents’ genes.
By adults, growth hormone is producing throughout life. It maintains muscle bulk, a healthy skeleton, and normal energy levels.
Sleep and exercise induce the release of the growth hormone. The research said that sleep stages’ timing can change the amount of the growth hormone released during sleep. The critical period of human growth hormone release is in the first period of Stage 3 sleep during the night. That means, if a person stays up all night, then there is no surge in growth hormone release. Therefore, the growth hormone balances will be irregular and depart from the normal one when they usually sleep at night.
That’s why, whenever people sleep, the growth hormone helps them grow more than awake. But as the growth hormone stops helping men or women to grow, nothing more can be done.
The skeleton does not stop growing at the same time: the lower body stops growing in height before the upper body because they have solid bones that don’t allow growth once fused. Whereas the upper part of the body is formed of cartilages and bones, the growth stops later.
🌱 How to Grow Taller
Once the skeleton has stopped growing, no medical drug treatments will increase height.
Sometimes stretching exercises like swimming and cycling enhance growth, but that is definitely not after 25 years of age. Still, there are complex pilates exercises. These are very difficult and require the supervision of medical experts. With these exercises, people can add half or one inch to their original height even after attaining 25 years.
If people are unsatisfied with their height, they might have surgical operations to enhance height after 22 years. They undergo breaking of the legs and pulling them apart, and bolts are drilled into the bones, which take time to get set inside the body. The entire procedure is very painful and problematic.
Since surgery is not for everyone, there is another option that people may consider. This method is non-invasive and free.
If you want to be as tall as possible, keeping a good posture while standing and sitting will give that visual impression of added height. Moreover, but it will also make a person appear more confident.
💭 Final Thoughts
In fact, our body keeps growing all the time.
Hair will always grow, so will nails. Cells continue to grow and replace other cells because cells have a finite life span and are replaced by new ones.
There are around 100 trillion cells in the human body, each has its own life span, and they continue to work, grow, and get replaced until we die. Red blood cells can live up to months, while white blood cells more than a year.
No one knows at what age we stop getting taller or, for that matter, when we start growing. That process is controlled by the DNA genes we inherited from our parents. Yet, children who are “early developers” may be stopped growing before late developers.
One thing is for sure, we know we’ve really stopped growing when we no longer have to buy new clothes every few months.
Some people would like to be taller, and some would like to be shorter. Some parents might also be concerned that their children are too short or too tall. In most cases, the situation cannot be changed and should not be considered unnatural.
On the other side, we shouldn’t forget that we still can grow in understanding, in knowledge, in skills, in wealth, in wisdom — indeed in all manner of things.
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Disclaimer: Articles aren’t medical advice. The information on Holistic View is for educational purposes only. It is not meant to diagnose or treat any medical conditions.
