The document discusses the difference between cause and effect relationships and risk factors in medicine. It provides examples of confirmed cause and effect relationships like HIV causing AIDS. For chronic diseases like cancer, establishing causality is difficult because there is typically a latency period between exposure and disease. Instead, medicine uses a risk factor approach, where factors are statistically associated with but have not been proven to cause a disease. The distinction between risk factors and causes is important, as risk factors do not necessarily mean an individual will develop a disease.