"Sobering Stats: What's Killing Middle-aged White American Women?"

Suicides in the United States have surged to a 30-year high. This, along with an increasing death rate among middle-age, white American women due to alcohol and drugs, have U.S. mortality rates on the rise.

This turnaround reverses decades of falling mortality rates achieved through better medical care and lifestyle choices.

"This is absolutely a surprise to us. It knocked us off our chairs," said Anne Case, a professor at Princeton University who worked on the PNAS study that discovered the trend. "Every one's been stunned."

According to the study, over the last 30 years:

• Alcohol poisoning and drug overdose deaths increased fourfold in middle-aged white women
• Deaths from liver disease and cirrhosis rose 50% in middle-aged white women
• Suicides are up a shocking 81% in middle-aged white women

This alarming trend has driven up all-cause midlife mortality in the U.S.

In an interview on CBN, Pastor and New York Times bestselling author Max Lucado said he believes people are dying from a lack of hope and warns "Secularism sucks hope out of society."

"I don't want to simplify the whole issue of suicide--I know it's a very complex issue and I would never want to make it sound like there's a one-step solution."

But for people looking for hope, Lucado recommends the Bible.

"For every problem in life God has given us a promise. Make it your aim to get so acquainted with these promises that you can write yourself a prescription.

"God's promises can be that life preserver that's tossed to us when we're out in the water just giving us something to hold onto.

"God promises that He's with me forever, that the wages of sin is death but the promise of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord. And we begin to filter all of the challenges that we face through the promises of God," Lucado said. "And remember--God is incapable of breaking His promises."

A wise man once said: "We've never been more educated and entertained. We have technological tools our parents could only dream of, and we are saturated with information, amusement, and recreation. Yet more than ever, we are starving for hope." -- Max Lucado

"Be careful! Watch out for attacks from the Devil, your great enemy. He prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for some victim to devour. Take a firm stand against him, and be strong in your faith. Remember that your Christian brothers and sisters all over the world are going through the same kind of suffering you are. In His kindness God called you to His eternal glory by means of Jesus Christ. After you have suffered a little while, He will restore, support, and strengthen you, and He will place you on a firm foundation. All power is His forever and ever. Amen" 1 Peter 5:8-11.

HOW TO GO TO HEAVEN

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