"Epidemiologists confuse 'cause' with the 'reasons' why a clinical disease has happened...but cause and reason are not synonymous.For cause to have real meaning in science, it must be the sole prerequisite without which the disease cannot occur" Stebhens WE Med Hypoth 1990;31:106
"Others too have stressed the need for specificity, including Claude Bernard who argued that it is important in medicine to differentiate between cause and associated or predisposing factors because 'anything else would be a denial of success in medicine'". Stebhens 1990.
So according to definition that differentiates "cause" from "reason", if lowering blood cholesterol concentrations does not produce 100% reversal of coronary atherosclerosis, then an elevated blood cholesterol concentration is NOT the CAUSE of atherosclerosis.Can only be "reason"
