6 Reasons Retiring Could Harm Your Health, According to Those Who Won't Retire

Many of us fantasize for most of our working lives about retirement, the time when we can finally kick back unaccountable to anything or anyone, an era in which our time is truly our own. But researchers have warned that retiring isn't everything it's cracked up to be. Recent studies have found that some baked-in characteristics of work are essential to our overall health, and they're harder to come by in retirement. Here are key reasons why retiring could harm your health, according to researchers and people over 70 who are still at it. 

Ralph Abraham, 78, works full-time as an endocrinologist in London. "I'm useful and I enjoy it and I'm seeing great patients who give me so much stimulation and energy," he recently told the Telegraph. "Although I've always maintained that if you're interested in life, you find the energy—often people who are tired have lost interest."

According to a 2021 study published in BMC Public Health, people who worked full- or part-time had higher mental health scores (as measured by the Geriatric Depression Scale) than those who had retired.

The BMC study also showed that women who worked after age 65 in "rewarding" jobs had a lower likelihood of needing long-term care and experienced a lesser decline in their ability to complete daily activities.

One Harvard Business Review Study found that people who retired at 66 instead of 65 or younger lived 11% longer. 

A 72-year-old man named Tom told the Telegraph that maintaining his work as an architect has brought him major mental and physical benefits. "In terms of my capacity, nothing has changed at all since I was young," he said.  "When I was a teenager, I remember reading about a philosopher who died when he was 92 expounding some great idea. I thought, 'That's brilliant, why would you want to stop?'. The past 10 minutes of your life are as precious as the first 10 minutes so why spend them watching television?"

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Sylvia Paskin, 79, still works as an editor and creative writing teacher, which exposes her to younger people regularly. "Working keeps me in contact with some really delightful people—they bring so much to my life and keep my brain active." Studies have found that social connection is essential to healthy aging and that it may be as important to good health as nutrition.