When we are young, we are proud to see that the spaces between the marks that our parents put on the door frame to measure our height are getting higher and higher. However, there comes a time when the last mark stays in the same place and there are no more because we stop growing.
But this does not happen with every part of our body. In fact, our ears and nose, for some strange reason, keep getting bigger and bigger. And we can’t help but wonder if they will stop growing. Well… you should know: they will never stop increasing in size.
We were curious as to why our nose and ears don’t stop growing when the rest of our body stops growing, so we decided to search the internet for answers and this is what we found. If you are a man, read on, we have bad news for you…
To hear better
Well, maybe the Wolf took things a bit too far when he said that he had big ears so he could better hear what Little Red Riding Hood was saying. Anyway, if the Wolf was a human, he would definitely have big ears too. That’s because the older he was, the bigger his ears would be, according to a study by researchers in Bromley, UK.
They keep growing and growing and growing…
According to another study conducted by German scientists in 2007, if you measure the outer ear of a newborn baby, it turns out that it is larger than the head in proportion to the body. Not only that, but the ears will continue to grow in a generally linear fashion throughout their life.
However, this growth begins to slow down when the child is between 8 and 10 years old. When people reach the age of 85, their ears reach the longest average length they will ever have.
Slowly, but steadily
The average growth of most people’s ears is minimal, so it is barely noticeable. However, it is constant over the years. That’s what the researchers found after measuring the ears of a randomly selected group of 206 of their patients over the age of 30.
They then calculated that the ears grew an average of 0.22 mm per year for about 50 years. In other words, a 30-year-old can expect that by the time they hit 80, their ears will have grown a little over an inch in length.
Gravity is not the only culprit.
The first explanation that comes to mind is that gravity is the sole culprit for ear growth. Well, if you thought that too, you might be wrong. Over time, we also experience a loss of skin elasticity.
Our earlobes droop, a fact that can be accentuated if a person constantly wears very heavy earrings. Furthermore, it not only lengthens but also widens as the circumference of the ear increases by an average of 0.51mm per year, probably due to the aging of collagen in your body, which is the most abundant protein that humans they have in their body. bodies.
Have you noticed that your ears and nose are growing? Have you ever compared photos from when you were a child with those from now? Did your ears and nose grow at the rate indicated in these studies?
Preview photo credit Mary Evans/AF Archive/Graham Whitby Boot/Mary Evans Picture Library/East News, Imagine/Henrik Hildebrandt / 10/REPORTER / East News, Dylan Travis/ABACA/Abaca/East News, adrienbrody / Instagram
