According to a recent study, all those employees who are used to working long hours in stressful jobs and fear that retirement might just make them unhappy; now can shelve their worries because giving up work can help you feel as much as ten years younger almost immediately.

The main reason for this, the study claims, is that in lieu of no more stress, physical illnesses and mental tensions simply "melt away". Retirement has the same relieving effect on everyone, right from the top-class executive to workers on the shop floor. Furthermore, these relaxing effects can last for up-to 10 years.

The study concluded that the more stressful a job, the better are improvements in physical and mental health. Conditions such as backache and neck pain might just go away for good, improving physical health, and as for the mental well-being, one can say goodbye to depression and risk of stress-induced smoking; and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The findings, which come from the 14 year long GAZEL study, have been published online already and will also be found in the upcoming edition of the Lancet.