The life course health development (LCHD) model as a conceptual frame-work suggests that one's health pathways are established over their lifetime, through early or critical experiences, cumulative or interactive exposures, and a host of risk-oriented or protective factors. (http: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3984896/pdf/nihms566423.pdf -- accessed 4/12/15) The life course health development (LCHD) framework organizes research from several fields into a conceptual approach explaining how individual and population health develops and how developmental trajectories are determined by interactions between biological and environmental factors during the lifetime. This approach thus provides a construct for interpreting how people's experiences in the early years of life influence later health conditions and functional status. By focusing on the relationship between experiences and the biology of development, the LCHD framework offers a better understanding of how diseases occur. (http: //www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/?term=12233246 - accessed 4/12/15)