Here are 5 ways retirement can affect your health

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Some 1.7 million Americans retire each year, transitioning from the workforce to live off federal benefits , pensions and savings .

Retirement offers those typically ages 62 and up a chance to spend more time with loved ones, take up hobbies without the pressures of work and travel.

Experts say that depends on how people live during retirement - and their past health history.

“Your life after retirement already started when you were a baby,” Baowen Xue, an associate professor at University College London, told The New York Times on Friday.

Retirement gives people time to improve certain areas of their life, like fitness, diet and sleep habits, researchers at the University of Sydney found in a 2016 study .

It can be easier to develop and maintain an exercise routine and unemployment can help people make more mindful food choices.

“Retirement provides increased time to prepare healthy meals and maintain a healthy diet, increased time to spend engaging in physical activity and increased time to spend engaging in socially healthy activities,” Dr. Amanda Sonnega, a University of Michigan researcher, previously told the BBC’s Science Focus .

Retirement also gives people time to strengthen connections with families and friends, as well as within their communities.

Some people may gain the freedom to move to some place they could improve their social lives.

And it can give people an opportunity to do things they’ve always wanted to try, like go on a cruise or take up knitting.

Retirees who remain engaged socially often experience slowed biological aging, Dr. Zaldy Tan, medical director of the Jona Goldrich Center for Alzheimer’s and Memory Disorders at the Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, explained in a statement .

On the flip side, people who spend their retirement largely alone and not engaged in activity may see their health decline in retirement.

Over a dozen studies conducted over the past decade show how retirement can leave people at a heightened risk of depression and a higher risk of disease.