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For people working in knowledge-based jobs, a retirement age in the 70s is reasonable from a cognitive perspective, too, said Lisa Renzi-Hammond, director of the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Georgia.
佐治亚大学老年学研究所所长丽莎·伦齐-哈蒙德说，对于从事脑力工作的人来说，从认知的角度来看，70多岁的退休年龄也是合理的。
"Our cognitive faculties we're able to maintain, usually, pretty well into our 70s," she said. "If retirement age is set based on the capabilities or competence of employees, there's absolutely no reason to have a retirement age in the 60s."
"我们的认知能力通常到70多岁都还能维持在比较好的状态，"她说，"如果退休年龄是根据员工的能力范围和工作能力而设定的，那么绝对没有理由将退休年龄定在60岁。"
Parts of the brain -- most notably the prefrontal cortex, which is critical for executive functioning, attention and working memory -- do start to lose volume as early as around age 45, but other areas are able to compensate, Dr. Renzi-Hammond said.
伦齐-哈蒙德博士说，大脑的某些部分--最明显的是前额叶皮质，这个部分对执行功能、注意力和工作记忆至关重要--确实从45岁左右就开始体积减小，但大脑的其他区域能够进行弥补。
And other aspects of cognition, such as crystallized intelligence (accumulated knowledge that can be applied to new situations) and social cognition (behaving appropriately in interpersonal interactions), continue to improve for decades.
而认知的其他方面，如晶体智力(逐渐积累且可应用于新情况的知识)和社会认知(在人际互动中表现得体)，会在接下来的几十年里继续进步。
Many of these cognitive processes are maintained and strengthened by staying in the work force. Consequently, some people decline mentally and physically when they stop working.
许多认知过程都是通过留在工作岗位而得到保持和加强的。因此，当一些人停止工作时，他们的精神和身体都会衰退。
One study even found that delaying retirement was associated with a decreased risk of death, regardless of health before retirement. Experts speculate that the losses of job-related physical activity and social interactions that come with leaving work are largely to blame for post-retirement declines.
一项研究甚至发现，无论退休前的健康状况如何，推迟退休与死亡风险的降低有关。专家推测，停止工作后，与工作相关的体力活动和社交活动的缺失是退休后身心衰退的主要原因。
National health and disability averages don't tell the full story, though. While some people stay sharp and continue to work into their 80s, other jobs are more physically demanding and take a toll on people's health.
然而，全国的健康水平和残疾平均水平并不能说明问题的全部。有些人一直头脑敏锐，能工作到80多岁，但还有些工作对体力的要求更高，会对人们的健康造成损害。
"There are people who do manual labor where at age 65, they really cannot continue to do this very challenging work," Dr. Cohen said. "Their need to retire needs to be respected."
"有些从事体力劳动的人在65岁的时候就真的没办法继续做这种很有挑战性的工作了，"科恩博士说，"他们的退休需求需要得到尊重。"
For these types of work, retirement can actually improve health outcomes, Dr. Renzi-Hammond said. "If you're leaving a job that is physically bad for you, where you are getting terrible sleep and you're constantly stressed out, then retirement is great for your health."
伦齐-哈蒙德博士说，对于这些类型的工作，退休实际上可以改善健康状况。"如果你的工作对你的身体不好、让你的睡眠质量很差、一直感到压力很大，那么退休对你的健康是有好处的。"
Life span and health-span are also not consistent across race and gender, both because of the type of work certain demographics are more likely to take part in, and the toll chronic stress from discrimination takes on the body.
不同种族和性别的人的全部寿命和健康年限也不一致，因为不同人口群体倾向于从事的工作不同，也因为歧视带来的长期压力对身体造成损害。
In his research, Dr. Wettstein found that, at age 50, Black men have a working life expectancy of approximately 17 years, while white women could continue working for 24 years. "There is an equity concern there, both on the life expectancy side, and also on the working-life expectancy side," Dr. Wettstein said.
韦特斯坦博士在研究中发现，50岁的黑人男性还有约17年的预期工作年限，而白人女性则可以再继续工作24年。"这里存在着一个公平问题，无论是在预期寿命方面，还是在预期工作年限方面。"韦特斯坦博士说。
"We know that Black Americans, particularly, develop illness at earlier ages, live with more disabilities, die younger," said Dr. Lisa Cooper, director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Equity. "So not allowing them to retire until they're older means they're just not going to benefit from Social Security as much."
"我们知道，尤其是美国黑人，患病年龄更早，残疾程度更高，寿命更短。"约翰·霍普金斯大学健康公平研究中心主任丽莎·库珀说，"因此，不允许他们提前退休意味着他们不会从社会保障中获得太多好处。"
This is also true for people from lower income brackets and those who work in physically intense jobs, she added. As a result, Dr. Cooper said, "Raising the retirement age needs to be done with all of these issues in mind, because it's not going to affect everyone the same."
她补充说，低收入阶层和从事高强度体力工作的人也是如此。库珀博士说，因此"提高退休年龄需要考虑到所有这些问题，因为这对每个人会产生不同的影响"。
The initial intent for Social Security when it was established in 1935 was simply to sustain people once they could no longer physically work. But another way to think of federally funded retirement is that it should reward people with a few years of leisure.
1935年建立社会保障制度时，其初衷只是为了在人们没有体力继续工作时，能维持他们的生活。但对由联邦政府资助的退休政策的另一种看法是，政府应该奖励人们几年闲暇时间。
"One of the areas that we don't talk enough about is: What do people deserve?" Dr. Cohen said. "Is a few wonderful years when you're still healthy -- that you can do things and travel and so on -- is that a national goal?" In France, and likely elsewhere too, many would say yes.
"我们没有充分讨论的一个领域是：人们应该得到什么？"科恩博士说。"在你还健康的时候，还能有几年好时光去做些事情、去旅游等等，这应该是国家的目标吗？"在法国，也可能在其他地方，许多人会说"是的"。
