Re: Growth from hormones after adulthood, do you grow out instead of up?

That’s a good question, Wilber, and you have hit on the right answer!  The height 
a young person attains is due to growth within the long bones of the body.  This 
growth take place at the junction of the diaphysis (shaft) and the two epiphyses 
(tips) of the bone at a thin line of cartilage called the epiphyseal plate.  This 
plate ossifies (changes from cartilage to bone) in response to the sex steroids 
estradiol (in females) and testosterone (in males).  Once ossification occurs 
there can be no more length type growth.  However, the body still produces growth 
hormone (GH, also called somatotropic hormone), but normally at a lower level.  
This should be enough to maintain the body tissue without further growth.  
However, as a person ages, the level of GH may increase a minute amount which 
will stimulate the bones to grow slightly thicker and the soft tissues to also 
grow in volume over the years.  Have you ever noticed how grandma and grandpa 
usually have larger ears and noses and thicker fingers as they age?  In most 
cases this is so slow and slight a change that the only way to show that it is 
happening is to take pictures every year over a period of years and make precise 
measurements of the ear size and so forth.  Of course you could make direct 
physical measurements but many people would not really appreciate what you would 
be trying to accomplish and it also becomes difficult to get a measurement every 
year since people move or die and your population becomes smaller and smaller.  
To get back to your question, if there is an anterior pituitary problem that 
results in an elevated GH level prior to puberty (before epiphyseal plate 
closure) then the person will get taller and wider than otherwise.  Gigantism is 
the name applied to this condition.  If the elevated GH level is post puberty, 
then the person just gets wider (thicker) without increase in stature.  
Acromegaly is the name applied to this condition.