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The lipid hypothesis was one of two hypotheses developed in the 1850s to explain the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis. It was proposed by the German pathologist Rudolph Virchow in 1856 and suggested that blood lipid accumulation in arterial walls causes atherosclerosis.[1] Since the emergence of cardiovascular disease as a major cause of death in the Western world in the middle of the 20th century, the lipid hypothesis received greater attention. An accumulation of evidence has led to the acceptance of the lipid hypothesis as scientific fact by the majority of the medical community;[2] however, a small but vocal minority contend that it has not yet been properly validated.