Aging brings a bunch of changes to your body, both physically and mentally. To keep up with those changes, your medical needs shift as you get older.

“Our immune system changes as we get older, and it starts … sooner than you would think, sort of in our 50s is when it starts … and then it peaks by the age of 80,” said Dr. Ardeshir Hashmi, section chief of the center for geriatric medicine at Cleveland Clinic.

Within that three-decade period, our body is impacted by immunosenescence, which is the worsening of our immune response, Hashmi noted. So, as we age, we become more susceptible to infections, he said. This means it’s important to be protected against viruses that can be avoided. One way to do that is through vaccination.

Which shots do you need if you fall in this category? Below, experts share what vaccines you should consider getting if you’re over the age of 50.

“The first vaccine that comes to mind when people reach age 50 is the vaccine against shingles,” said Dr. Julie Thai, a geriatrician at the senior care clinic at Stanford University.

Shingrix is a two-dose vaccine that protects against shingles and is the new, more effective formulation of the vaccine, according to Thai. The old vaccine, Zostavax, is no longer available or recommended in the U.S. If you’ve only had the Zostavax shingles vaccine, you should get the new shot, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Thai said most of her patients have had the vaccine, but for those who don’t remember if they’ve been vaccinated (or if they’ve had the old formulation), she tells them to get the Shingrix shot.

“That’s really important because shingles is painful and it’s one of those infections that just has these long-term effects,” Thai explained. “People have this neuropathic pain that can last for years … if they don’t get treated early enough in the disease course.”

Hashmi added that while both people who are vaccinated and unvaccinated can get the rash, it’s only the unvaccinated folks who would have this ongoing neuropathic, burning pain.

The pneumococcal vaccine is important for people 65 and older, Thai said. “It will protect them against severe cases of pneumonia.”

Additionally, the vaccine is recommended for younger people who are at high risk for severe pneumonia because of chronic illnesses like diabetes, Thai added. So, you can check with your doctor if you’re under 65 but concerned about your pneumonia risk because of preexisting conditions.

“The one that really comes to mind to me is tetanus, so the tetanus-diphtheria booster … if you look at data, it’s really actually people who are over 50 ― especially women ― who have low immunity to tetanus and diphtheria,” said Dr. Trish Perl, a professor in the department of internal medicine who specializes in infectious diseases at UT Southwestern Medical Center.

To account for this, you can get the Tdap vaccine, which also targets pertussis, she said. “That is especially important for people who are going to be around young children — like grandparents — because pertussis is a big problem in younger children, but it’s actually adults who … are the ones who will be transmitting pertussis,” Perl stated.

For the Tdap shot, “everyone requires a booster every 10 years. And this one, I feel people don’t take that seriously,” Thai said.

The COVID-19 vaccine is the newest necessary vaccine for folks, according to Hashmi.

Older people have a higher chance of getting very sick from COVID-19 if they’re unvaccinated, resulting in severe outcomes like hospitalization or death, according to the CDC. And if you are older and have underlying conditions, like heart disease or diabetes, you’re even more at risk.

People who are 50 and up are eligible to get the updated bivalent vaccine and can get boosted if it’s been at least four months since their last shot, according to the CDC.

The flu shot is important for everyone, not just for folks over 50. In fact, the CDC says everyone 6 months and up should get this shot each season.

“I always advise people to get vaccinated against seasonal flu because it really can put you out … especially now coupled with COVID,” Thai said. “I think people sometimes are dismissive of it, but it is really important that at any age to get the influenza vaccine.”

Hashmi added that the illnesses that have a lot of inflammation involved — like the flu, COVID, shingles and pneumonia — are worse in older patients.

“Because if you get the illness, the response to it is not robust because our natural immunity has gone down,” Hashmi said. “So, unless you supplement that with these vaccines, not only will the diseases happen … they will happen with much more severity than if you were, let’s say, a young adult or someone between age 20 and age 50.”

“If you have certain risk factors, some of our seniors also merit the Hepatitis B vaccine,” Hashmi said. Those risk factors include intravenous drug use at any point and people who are incarcerated.

The vaccine is also available to people with certain health conditions. “Hepatitis B is important. It’s usually people who are immunocompromised … or who are older than 60 is usually when we start recommending it,” Thai noted.

“I do think a lot of people at this age group also travel and so that may be another twist,” Perl said.

According to Perl, your vaccine needs will differ depending on what countries you visit. She recommends the Hepatitis A vaccine for people who travel, particularly if you eat street food and aren’t checking whether something is cooked all the way through, “because you can get pretty sick from Hepatitis A and especially you don’t want to get sick if you’re traveling.”

For other kinds of travel, recommended vaccines may include the meningococcal vaccine, polio vaccine, rabies and yellow fever, she said. To figure out what vaccines you may need for upcoming trips, talk to your primary care doctor. Your physician should be able to vaccinate you or refer you to a travel medicine center.

Vaccine needs vary from person to person — and some people may require more information before going through with the jab. Talk to your doctor about what vaccines you need to stay protected well past your middle-age years.

“I think it’s important for every patient to sit with their doctors and ask questions and, you know, make an informed decision based on what answers they get,” Thai said.

She added that your physician can help explain the science behind some of these vaccines, address your concerns and help debunk any myths.

“Most of these vaccines have been around for years and years and years and are well studied, or the technology behind them is well studied,” Perl noted. “They’re actually much safer than getting these underlying diseases.”

And if you are vaccinated but still end up getting sick, you’ll be better off.

“It’s not like you are never going to get these illnesses. You could still get them. However, you will get a much milder version of any of these illnesses,” Hashmi explained.

These vaccines can help you live a fuller life, too. “People are living longer, they’re living better [and] the quality of life is also improved if you’ve stayed up to date with these vaccines,” Hashmi said.

It seems that everything shifts as you age. You may notice you get wrinkles, your hair turns gray and even your height changes — in other words, you shrink.

“Aging is not a random thing that happens, it’s very predictable, it happens to us all. And rather than just luck and some bad things that might happen to you, there is a whole biology that has been evolving in identifying why all these changes happen to our body,” said Dr. Douglas Kiel, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and the director of the Musculoskeletal Research Center and senior scientist at Marcus Institute for Aging Research in Massachusetts.

Losing some height is one of those changes. But how much you shrink once you hit mid-life depends on a few factors (the exact amount that you might shrink isn’t 100% agreed on).

Kiel said shrinking less than an inch is normal and any more than that may be indicative of underlying issues (more on that below). Dr. James Harrop, the chief of the division of spine and peripheral nerve surgery at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in Philadelphia, added that men lose about .02% of their height per year while women lose .1% per year on average.

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences reports men shrink about 1 inch in their lifetime while women shrink 2 inches.

While the amount may vary depending on the person, shrinking overall is usually normal. Below, experts explain why it happens and when you may need to be concerned.

“So, one reason that height might be reduced is that you are curved forward,” Kiel said, explaining that people tend to hunch as they get older. “If you stretched yourself out, your height might not be as much reduced, but since you can’t stand up totally straight … you measure a lower height.”

This curvature is referred to as kyphosis, he said. Every one of us has some variation of this in our spine, “but with aging, it’s often observed that the kyphosis, that slight curvature, becomes more pronounced.”

Muscles are required to keep your spine straight, and usually you lose those muscles as you have more birthdays. “You lose muscle fibers with aging, so the ability to extend your spine and look straight and tall are not as good as they were when you were younger. And so that kyphosis is more pronounced, and therefore your height is reduced,” Kiel said.

Part of what makes up our height are vertebral bodies, which are part of the vertebrae that make up our spine. “If you are losing bone as you age, sometimes the vertebral bodies … actually are crushed,” Kiel noted. This means they get less tall, making us less tall, too.

And sometimes these vertebral bodies actually break. “It’s called a vertebral fracture, and a vertebral fracture reduces the height of the vertebral bodies,” Kiel added. “You have a lot of vertebral bodies in your body going from the lower part to the middle, all the way up to your skull, and if one or more of those vertebral bodies loses its height — even though it’s only one small part of the spine — you can lose height,” Kiel said.

You may be completely unaware if you do have these fractures, Harrop said. Two-thirds of people with vertebral fractures do not feel any pain. You may also just think you pulled something in your back, according to both experts.

People with osteoporosis, which is a loss of bone, tend to have more vertebral fractures, Kiel noted.

Harrop said that when he sees someone with osteoporosis and a spine problem come into his office, he gets nervous because if you have a fracture and “you don’t get treated, you have a 30% chance of having another fracture within one year.” And more and more fractures cause angulation in the spine, resulting in shrinking, Harrop noted.

You’ve likely heard of a slipped disc (or maybe you’ve even had one). Those discs, which are known as intervertebral discs, are another piece of the shrinking puzzle.

“A disc is really a shock absorber or a pillow between two bones,” said Dr. Raz Winiarsky, an orthopedic surgeon at Brooklyn Premier Orthopedics. “And, essentially, when over time, starting in middle-age or actually starting a little earlier, like in your 40s, the amount of water in the disc … dissipates or dries out.”

This drying out shrinks the discs and leads to less disc height, which can impact your height. According to Harrop, by the time you’re 60 or 70, your disc can go from about 10 to 13 millimeters in height to 1 to 2 millimeters due to disc degeneration.

“Now, you do that with your 23 discs, and you can obviously see that’s a significant loss of height,” Harrop said.

“If I could give one public service announcement, [it’s that] everyone … should get their bone density checked and they should be treated if they have osteoporosis,” Harrop stressed.

A bone density test won’t totally stop you from shrinking but will alert you of any problems that could exacerbate it.

“When people reach age 65, Medicare pays for a bone density test, which is a way of quantifying how much bone you still have left and … some of the machines can have the patient roll on his or her side and get a side view of vertebral bodies to see if there are any of those compression fractures,” Kiel added.

You may be eligible to get a bone density test before 65; for example, Kiel said that many women are encouraged to do so during menopause. Additionally, Harrop said if you have a spine problem like scoliosis, it’s that much more important to get your bone density checked. Talk to your primary care physician to see if you qualify.

What’s more, a healthy lifestyle can help slow down any shrinkage as well. “If you really want to not lose bulk and try to … actually maintain your bone density, the best thing in the world is to exercise,” Winiarsky said. “It’s never too late to start, but the best thing is to have a life of healthy exercise where you do it a half an hour a day.”

This will help you maintain the strength of your bones and the strength of the muscles that help you hold your spine up.

“Shrinking is not a disease, but it … could be an indicator that some things are changing in your body that potentially could be slowed down,” Kiel said. “You have muscle, you have discs, you have bones, and they’re all contributing to shrinking, and if you shrink a lot it could mean more losses are occurring in those three contributors.”

When I look at photos of myself from 20 to 30 years ago, I realize that I had no idea how good I looked. I never thought twice about wearing short skirts and dresses when I was in my 20s, 30s and even 40s. I’m now in my early 50s.

Recently, I tried on some of the things in my closet and deemed them “too short” — not something a younger me would have ever done. That got me thinking: How short is too short when you’re a half-century old or more? Is it different than when I was 22? Should it be different? How else have my style and fashion choices changed as I’ve aged?

I became intrigued by the answers to these questions — if there were answers, and if those answers even mattered — as well as the thoughts, worries and fears that other women my age have about their fashion and style choices. So I spoke to as many of my peers as I could, and also got insight from a psychologist. The stories and conversations we had were illuminating, validating and wonderfully insightful.

I’ve known Natalie Flores, age 49, for about 25 years. We worked together when we were in our 30s and became close friends. Those were the days of short skirts, tank tops and cowboy boots in Austin, Texas. Bare legs and arms were our norm. Though I have since moved to a place much less swampy, Nat still lives that state. Some of her fashion choices have changed, though.

“I no longer wear shorts because of the way my inner thigh curves, although I have no problem with a short skirt because it hides that inner thigh curve,” she told me. She also said she no longer wears cap sleeves because they “point” to a soft and pale inner arm that she’d rather hide (from both her own reflection and the public).

Joan, a 69-year-old cyclist and retired lawyer who requested to keep her surname private, told me that since she passed the 50-year milestone, she no longer wears miniskirts.

“I stopped because I just didn’t feel like showing off that much anymore — didn’t feel the need to advertise, as it were.” she said. “As I got older, no skirts whatsoever. Didn’t like stuff flapping around my legs. Besides, if I dropped something or had to climb over something, I didn’t want the hassle of a skirt. Both of those things happened in my 40s and 50s.”

Stephanie Ruksyio, a 50-something French woman I met a couple of decades ago in a bistro, had an effortless, sexy style that I myself was never very good at. When we talked, she told me that her style has definitely changed, and that she feels as if she is still undergoing changes, both fashion and otherwise. This, I think, is a state we should all aspire to: perpetually growing and becoming. I mean, are we ever really done?

“The wonderful thing is now I don’t have any pressure or drive to impress,” Stephanie said. “My fashion and style decisions have gradually become … comfortable yet funky, but above all true to myself, instead of hypothetically pleasing the times and/or people. I feel and love my age in the sense that I dress completely in tune with my needs and wants, regardless of exterior inputs.”

Some of the women I talked to lamented that their skin has begun to sag. Joan told me that despite her good muscle tone and the fact that she is in great shape, the packaging is sagging.

“Unfortunately,” she said, “gravity has been around as long as I have. That one breaks my heart.”

Jeannie Barbato, a 70-year-old woman who is also active and fit, said something similar: “I am more aware of showing skin — wrinkly neck and arms, legs that are increasingly scarred and mottled. But, not infrequently, I do it anyway.”

“If a lot of your self-esteem is based on your appearance, you’re going to have more anxiety as you get older because your appearance changes. And I think this is especially true for women,” Ann Kearney-Cooke, a licensed psychologist and wellness coach in Ohio, told me.

“You need to define yourself by the choices you make each day, not what’s happened in the past or how culture’s perceiving you,” she said. These include deciding to be a better person or a better friend, to eat healthy, to move, to experience the arts.

“Focus on the choices you make to feel good about yourself and your body,” she added. “You get affected about a lot of things, like who your partner is, what fashion has meant in the past to you, how important people in your life dressed.”

At the end of the day though, the trick is just finding colors, fabrics and styles that look good on you, that you feel good in, that really express who you are now.

“A gift to getting older, I think, is that we’re more clear about who we are,” Kearney-Cooke said.

Thankfully, as I’ve gotten older, I care less about what other people think of the way I look. Not that sometimes I still don’t worry about how I’m perceived, but ultimately I am better about not giving those kinds of concerns much credence. One person responded to my miniskirt question by saying: “No worries. No fear. I wear what I want.”

And when it comes to the gaze of others, there’s a certain freedom to be found in acknowledging that not everyone is watching you. “I look at other women my age and think, nobody cares how we dress anyway, which also gives me a certain amount of carefreeness,” Jeannie said.

Natalie told me that she’d recently been feeling nostalgic for her college years look and questions whether she’s trying too hard to look young.

“I have been experimenting on adding elements of that look to my choices. And I definitely pause and wonder if it looks forced, if it makes me look like I’m trying to look younger or if I look out of touch with what someone my age is ‘supposed’ to wear,” she said.

Many of us spend a good deal of time worrying about how we look and whether we will appear attractive to others. And this, of course, is always tied up in how we choose to dress, as well as our relationships with our own bodies, Kearney-Cooke said.

“We also have to teach people how to talk about our bodies,” she said. She told me a story about one of her clients who received a clean bill of health from her doctor. The woman was very pleased, but when she told her husband, he asked if the doctor had said anything about her “big butt.”

“And this is the best part,” Kearney-Cooke told me. “The woman replied, ‘No, he didn’t ask about you.’”

A big part of accepting aging is the maturity that comes along with it. As Stephanie put it: “It’s a hard-won freedom to disregard how one is perceived by others. And I, for one, am so grateful to all who were pioneers in carving the road to openly expressing oneself unapologetically.”

“When I was younger, I had no idea how good I looked,” Joan said. “No one does. But then you get older and you look at pictures of yourself when you were young, and you think: ‘Jeez, I really looked great. I wish I’d appreciated that more and stressed less.’”

It’s easy to fall into comfortable beauty routines and use the same cosmetics and application techniques year after year. But the face you have at 50 isn’t the same as the one you had even a few years ago, so what worked before may not be enhancing your best features.

“Most of us learned to apply makeup when we were in our early 20s, and all we wanted to do then was look older,” said Ariane Poole, a 66-year-old expert in makeup for women over 50 and the founder of Ariane Poole Cosmetics. “If you tell an 18-year-old she looks 25, she’ll be thrilled. But if you tell someone who’s 58 that she looks 65, she’ll be horrified. We don’t want to look good for our age, we want to look good whatever our age, so it’s important to adapt.”

We talked to professional makeup artists ― all over 60 themselves ― about how they help other women let go of what’s no longer working and try new approaches to stay fresh and glowing. They pointed out some of the most common mistakes they see and offered smart techniques to avoid them.

“I firmly believe you can correct anything with makeup,” Poole said. “You don’t need to pile loads of product on your face, and you don’t need filler and Botox, either.”

When it comes to the five key topics below, take note if you haven’t already made adjustments to the products you’re using and the way you apply them.

If you haven’t used primer before, now is a good time to start. The experts we spoke with hailed it as a lifesaver. “A common problem with foundation is that it disappears within a couple of hours when applied to older, thirstier skin,” said Tricia Cusden, 75, the founder of Look Fabulous Forever. “Eye shadows may crease on crepey eyelids, and lipstick may feather into the lines around the mouth. The solution to all these frustrations is to use primers to help makeup stay put.”

It’s important to reevaluate colors and shades from time to time, too. “The shade you choose should match your neck, not your face,” Poole said. “Test a swatch on your chin and compare. If you feel washed out at first, don’t resort to a darker foundation, but try some bronzer instead.”

Makeup artist Sandy Linter, 76, said that if you’ve gotten used to using powder, you may want to try a reformulation. “I tell my clients they can get a glowier look with a combination of moisturizer, primer and foundation,” she said. If you’ve had bad experiences with foundation before, Linter suggested you reconsider: “Foundations are nothing to be afraid of now, even though they had a bad reputation in the past for being too mask-like. Now there are foundations that improve your skin quality and looks.”

Hair can get thinner and sparser as we age, which can affect the look of eyebrows ― and that has a big impact on overall appearance. “Brows add balance to the whole face and definition to the eye area, so they’re important,” Cusden said. The color you’re using to enhance them makes a big difference, she added, warning against using the same old eyebrow pencil you’ve always used. “Enhancing brows to match one’s original hair color may look a bit heavy,” she said. “If your hair has gone from brown to gray or blonde, then a soft taupe color for brows can look good.”

It’s also a good idea to pay attention to what’s happening with each brow. “They don’t tend to age evenly,” Poole noted. “I recommend using brow pomade or mascara, while noticing if you need more on one brow than another. And remember that the end of your brow should be straight across, not dropping down, which can make eyes seem more hooded.”

Yes, you still can use eyeliner. No, it shouldn’t be black. “Our eyes lose definition and seem smaller as we age, so you definitely need eyeliner,” Poole said. “But it shouldn’t look harsh. Instead of black, opt for charcoal gray or deep navy. Fair skin might do well with muted brown or soft olive. Deeper skin tones look great with navy or deep plum colors.”

Still wondering how to do eyeliner like a pro? Here’s Poole’s tip: “Apply the liner along the base of the top lashes, but stop just before you reach the end of the eye. This helps open the eyes and stops the eye from looking downturned.”

If you’ve been putting concealer on first, it’s time to switch things up and “apply it on top of your foundation or tinted moisturizer,” Poole said. In the past, she explained, concealers tended to be thick and heavy, but they’re now more lightweight. Because of that, you don’t want to displace them when you apply foundation, which is why they go on after.

“And if you’re dry under the eyes, I love using a daytime eye cream, followed by concealer and then foundation,” she said.

Even if you didn’t wear blush when you were younger, you may find it helpful now as your skin tone changes. “I feel that blusher is essential on an older face to restore a lovely healthy glow which lights up the whole face,” Cusden said.

Where should it go? The experts suggested a more thoughtful approach than a quick swipe somewhere between your nose and your eyes. “If you place it too high on the cheekbones, you’ll draw attention to under your eyes and even your jowls,” Poole said. Her suggestion? “Apply it right on the cheekbone, not any higher.”

This might be a good time to toss out your old powdered blush and switch to something dewier. “I prefer a cream-to-powder blush formulation so that you can position the blusher easily as a cream, but then move it with a brush like a powder,” Cusden said.

While Poole prefers applying blush right on the cheekbone, Cusden suggested a more “shaped” approach: “I aim to create a tear-drop shape, but at an angle with the round part on the cheeks and the thinnest point at the hairline, just level with your eyes.” To accomplish this, she suggested starting from the center of the eye and moving down until you can feel the lower part of your cheekbone. “Start to apply the blush there and then, using a brush, blend and sweep the color up towards your hairline,” she advised.

Finally, whatever you do, be kind to yourself. “I don’t accept the attitude that aging is some sort of failure of will,” Cusden said. “Everyone gets old, but age is no barrier to fabulousness. Nor does it mean we can’t apply some beautiful products to enhance our looks. I love my older face, because it has all the hallmarks of a good life, well lived.”

It’s a fortunate thing to be able to watch loved ones age into their senior years, but that privilege can also bring concerns about their ability to live alone safely and maintain a level of independence they may understandably desire.

Susan DeMarois, director of the California Department of Aging, said that most older adults want to age in place. She said the benefits include a continued sense of independence, living in a familiar space in which a person is comfortable and maintaining community connections.

Everyone deserves to live with dignity and access the highest quality of life that they are capable of and wish to have, said Richard J. Mollot, executive director for New York’s non-profit Long Term Care Community Coalition.

“This doesn’t change with age,” he said via email. “However, the parameters within which these rights can be safely exercised might change, depending on the individual’s needs and wishes.”

According to both DeMarois and Mollot, such parameters might include home modifications that can make a space safer and accommodating for concerns like limited mobility.

“There may also be a need for help with transportation, meals, cleaning or home maintenance and personal care,” DeMarois said, adding that utilizing local senior services can be one of the most holistic ways of accessing resourses, education and support.

Some of these include government food and nutrition programs, fall-prevention programs that can provide and install low-cost modifications to the home and community adult services that can integrate health and social needs.

“The best advice I can offer to loved ones who want to support an older adult who is living alone is to keep the lines of communication open,” DeMarois said. “Have regular conversations about how the situation is working, if changes need to be made, and what else the older adult needs to feel comfortable and secure at home.”

While these senior care experts did not endorse any specific products, we utilized the resources they provided to build a list of items that might be helpful for any older person to have at home. Keep reading to find ADA-compliant grab rails, highly rated caretaker alert systems and tablets meant to keep your loved one connected.

Justine Bateman accepts her changing physical features ― even if the internet won’t.

The former “Family Ties” star opened up about aging in the public eye in an interview with “60 Minutes Australia” that aired last week.

“I needed to Google something to do a little research and remind myself of something that happened when I was famous,” she said. “So, I put in my name, Googled my name ― Justine Bateman ― and then the autocomplete came up, which was ‘looks old.’” Bateman, 57, estimated she was 40 or 42 at the time.

“I was like, ‘What?’ And I looked at the pictures that they had as evidence, and I couldn’t see what they were talking about,” she said. “I just don’t give a shit” about what people think, she added.

“I think I look rad,” Bateman continued. “I think my face represents who I am. I like it.”

The actor, who wrote a book about beauty two years ago, also said in the interview that she feels “sad” for women who use fillers and Botox to hide the effects of aging, as they’re “not enjoying life.”

“I feel sad they are distracted from the things that they’re meant to do in life, with this consuming idea that they’ve gotta fix their face before anything else can happen,” Bateman said.

“I’m saying, forget about your face! That is what I’m saying,” she added. “Get rid of the fear that is making you think that the fact that your face is wrinkled is going to X-out a bunch of opportunities for you.”