ok, so you establisshed a correlation. you did NOT establish a cause.
there's a rooster on a farm near my dad's old home. every morning he climbs atop the barn and crows. then the sun comes up. therefore: there is a correlation between the rooster crowing and the sun coming up - there is NOT a cause/effect relationship.
lest we fall prey to the same junk science that infects the smoking situation.
Statistical correlation threatens to eclipse science.