In a recent review of US death rates between 1959 and 2017, medical researchers found that US life expectancy has declined for 3 consecutive years after 2014. The report, published in the journal of the American Medical Association, reveals that this decline is mainly due to midlife deaths (age 25-64 years), which started to rise in 2010 and has outpaced the continued progress of overall life expectancy in the country in the past three years. The leading courses of mortality among young and middle-aged adults, who should be in the prime of their lives, are drug overdoses, alcohol abuse, suicides, and a diverse list of organ system diseases. Some of it may be due to obesity and distracted driving from mobile devices.

While increase in working age death is most significant in economically distressed areas, it is observed in all racial groups and, therefore, has broad implications for all of society.

The midlife death crisis calls for concerted, unifying social effort. It also underscores how important individuals should maintain healthy lifestyle and mental stability.

Be yourself; Everyone else is already taken.

— Oscar Wilde.

This is the first post on my new blog. I’m just getting this new blog going, so stay tuned for more. Subscribe below to get notified when I post new updates.

This is an example post, originally published as part of Blogging University. Enroll in one of our ten programs, and start your blog right.

You’re going to publish a post today. Don’t worry about how your blog looks. Don’t worry if you haven’t given it a name yet, or you’re feeling overwhelmed. Just click the “New Post” button, and tell us why you’re here.

Why do this?

• Because it gives new readers context. What are you about? Why should they read your blog?
• Because it will help you focus you own ideas about your blog and what you’d like to do with it.

The post can be short or long, a personal intro to your life or a bloggy mission statement, a manifesto for the future or a simple outline of your the types of things you hope to publish.

To help you get started, here are a few questions:

• Why are you blogging publicly, rather than keeping a personal journal?
• What topics do you think you’ll write about?
• Who would you love to connect with via your blog?
• If you blog successfully throughout the next year, what would you hope to have accomplished?

You’re not locked into any of this; one of the wonderful things about blogs is how they constantly evolve as we learn, grow, and interact with one another — but it’s good to know where and why you started, and articulating your goals may just give you a few other post ideas.

Can’t think how to get started? Just write the first thing that pops into your head. Anne Lamott, author of a book on writing we love, says that you need to give yourself permission to write a “crappy first draft”. Anne makes a great point — just start writing, and worry about editing it later.

When you’re ready to publish, give your post three to five tags that describe your blog’s focus — writing, photography, fiction, parenting, food, cars, movies, sports, whatever. These tags will help others who care about your topics find you in the Reader. Make sure one of the tags is “zerotohero,” so other new bloggers can find you, too.