Is it true that people "fade away" as they age? Well, if you change the way the question is posed, the answer becomes obvious. How do people get LOWER as they get older? And here you can answer for us, because everyone knows that older people do lose height. After the age of 40, a person "shrinks" every decade by 2.5-7 cm. But sometimes the situation can go beyond that. But why does a person's height decrease in old age? There are several reasons for this. - Loss of muscle mass and fat reserves (specifically this does not always happen). - Osteoporosis. - Thinning of the foot. - Dehydration of the discs (they are between the vertebrae) - demonstrated in the picture above.