marmots

Biology

Biologists have found that early life adversity can also affect the health and lifespan of marmots.

Credit: CC0 Public Domain Exposure to adversity early in life can have permanent effects on health, even if circumstances improve dramatically later on. Scientists use the Cumulative Adversity Index (CAI), which quantifies hardships such as poverty and stress, to understand an individual’s health and longevity over their lifetime. This helps governments, health care providers and families identify concrete measures they…