Epidemiological risk factors of coronary heart disease are not causal in atherosclerosis

Logic dictates that for scientific progress in atherogenesis "cause" must b e the sole prequisite without which the disease cannot occur. Nor can it be assumed that statistical associations (risk factors) with coronary heart d isease (CHD) are causal for atherosclerosis and extrapolations from correla tions with CHD incidence to atherosclerosis are invalid. Any factor conside red to play a role in atherogenesis requires pathological and experimental evidence consistent with the logic of Koch's specificity of cause and effec t. Current epidemiological misuse and manipulation of cause and risk factor s are contrary to the basic precepts of scientific logic and the fundamenta l need for precision in word usage. The term "risk factor", because of the current deeply entrenched false concept of causality has retarded medical p rogress and should be abandoned. Its adherents, guilty of a disservice to t he tenets of their discipline, have also sullied the scientific integrity o f medicine as a whole.