50 minute Interview of Dr. Matthews by GrassrootsHealth
- Highlights
- VitaminDWiki -
25 studies in both of the categories Trauma-Surgery and Mortality - VitaminDWiki -
41 studies in both of the categories Trauma-Surgery and Loading Dose (often 300,000 IU) - 14+ VitaminDWiki pages have MATTHEWS in the title
- Dr. Matthews has many followers - both in trauma and surgery
- Unfortunately, unaware of any hospital that has adopted Vitamin D as standard of practice for ICU or surgery
- Note: Many forms of vitamin D activate the immune system far faster than standard Vitamin D
- The delay of a Vitamin D test can eliminated 99.9% of the time
- 25 most-visited pages in Trauma-Surgery
Highlights
- Healthcare providers can make a big difference for their patients simply by increasing their knowledge of vitamin D and by testing for and treating vitamin D deficiency
- Supplementing ICU patients with 50,000 IU vitamin D per day caused the mortality rates between different groups to drop to the same; more specifically, it eliminated the disparity between racial groups
- Working in the 4th busiest level 1 trauma center in the US, Dr. Matthews was able to cut the rate of heart attacks, strokes, falls, pneumonia, overall mortality, readmissions and the length of hospital stay just with vitamin D
- There is a need to get enough vitamin D “from the cradle to the grave” starting before conception, and checking vitamin D throughout life is absolutely vital; vitamin D regulates about 10% of your genes, so when you’re vitamin D deficient, you have lost some function in your body, and something is not functioning properly… usually the immune system…
Listen in to this fun and informative interview with Dr. Leslie Ray Matthews, M.D., FACS, FCCM. Discover some interesting facts about his family and upbringing, and about his experiences with vitamin D in practice as a hospital intensive care doctor and critical care surgeon.
Dr. Matthews’ knowledge of the biochemical and physiological actions of vitamin D within the body, combined with his awareness of the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency, prompted him to test vitamin D levels for all patients upon hospital admission and treat them with high doses of vitamin D. This resulted in improved health outcomes, decreased mortality rates, shorter hospital stays, lower healthcare costs, and zero cases of vitamin D toxicity. As he says, “Vitamin D deficiency is deadlier than vitamin D toxicity!”
Dr. Matthews wraps up the interview with key points and important advice that is essential for other health care practitioners to hear, especially if they are interested in keeping their patients healthy. They can make a big difference for their patients, simply by increasing their knowledge of vitamin D and by testing for and treating vitamin D deficiency.
A big thanks to Dr. Matthews for sharing his time and expertise! Listen in or read the key points below.
Watch the Video
Key Points from the Interview
The nutrition advice that Dr. Matthews got in medical school said that enough of all nutrients could be obtained simply by eating 3 healthy meals a day – which is untrue, especially for vitamin D.
Vitamin D deficiency is among all populations; it is the most common nutritional deficiency in the world.
We are meant to get vitamin D from exposing skin to the sun, but most people hide from the sun, stay indoors, use sunscreen or cover up when outside; cloud cover and air pollution also block vitamin D production. The darker the skin, the longer it needs to be exposed to the sun to make the same amount of vitamin D.
Being sick and staying in the hospital automatically meant vitamin D levels were going to decrease; when Dr. Matthews started testing his patients, he found they were all vitamin D deficient, however, African American women had the lowest levels, followed by African American males.
He began to compare mortality rates to vitamin D levels and found that those with the lowest vitamin D levels had the highest mortality rates as well as the highest ICU cost and the longest ICU stay.
Dr. Matthews started supplementing all of his patients with 50,000 IU vitamin D3 per day and noticed a decrease in mortality rate among all of his patients.
Supplementing ICU patients with 50,000 IU vitamin D per day caused the mortality rates between different groups to drop to the same – it eliminated the disparity between racial groups.
“Healthcare disparities are due to physiologic, biologic vitamin D deficiency, not so much as socio-economic factors. And we noticed that the mortality rates of all these different groups that I described you drop to the same. So, most health care disparities are due to their physiologic or biologic vitamin D deficiency, and not so much as socioeconomic factors like the medical community thought.”
Working in the 4th busiest level 1 trauma center in the US, he was able to cut the rate of heart attacks, strokes, falls, pneumonia, overall mortality, readmissions and the length of hospital stay just with vitamin D
There were also zero lawsuits while he was in practice
– “Normally you have a malpractice lawsuit in trauma, critical care, surgery every 3,000 cases….
We went 30,000 cases without a lawsuit.”He wrote a paper on the cost effectiveness of vitamin D supplementation in the ICU, which can be found here
He mentioned the importance of understanding how vitamin D works in the body, but because most doctors do not have a deep understanding of this, they don’t understand the need for it
There is no one-size-fits-all dose of vitamin D
Vitamin D controls close to 10% of our DNA, and is especially important for immune cells, immune function, and inflammation regulation
Dr. Matthews is developing a new patent that combines vitamin D, heat shock protein, and glutathione (“the strongest antioxidant on the planet”)
Magnesium is a very important cofactor for vitamin D; Dr. Matthews does not recommend taking calcium with vitamin D since taking more vitamin D will automatically increase the amount of calcium absorbed from the diet
His suggested target level is 50-55 ng/ml, up to 80 ng/ml in special cases, such as with cancer
Vitamin D can also cut the risk of heart attack and could help reverse congestive heart failure by helping the heart pump more efficiently
Dr. Matthews shares 7 key messages about vitamin D:
- Because vitamin D regulates about 10% of your genes, when you’re vitamin D deficient, you have lost some function in your body, so something is not functioning properly… usually the immune system.
- There is a need to get enough vitamin D “from the cradle to the grave” starting before conception; checking vitamin D during pregnancy is absolutely vital
- Even though he got push back from hospital administrators and even hospital dieticians and nutritionists, he pushed forward with his vitamin D protocol (and shared the research to show that it was safe and effective)
- “Vitamin D deficiency is deadlier than vitamin D toxicity”
- Research has shown that low vitamin D levels can increase the risk of death
- According to Dr. Matthews, vitamin D levels should be checked yearly at least, just like any other routine blood test
- “Vitamin D is important for bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic infections, cancer surveillance. So, it does all that. So that’s a gift from God. Actually, I call vitamin D God’s miracle vitamin.”
His message to doctors: Test all patients for vitamin D at admission or first visit!
Transcript
Download the transcript from VitaminDWiki
VitaminDWiki -
25 studies in both of the categories Trauma-Surgery and Mortality This list is automatically updated
- 3X reduced mortality in one metabolic cluster of ICU patients by high-dose Vitamin D – Nov 2024
- 4.8 X more likely to die within 28 days of ICU if low Vitamin D - Jan 2024
- Poor Receptor predicts sepsis death (restricts Vitamin D from getting to cells) – Aug 2021
- Cardiac Surgery with low vitamin D increased delirium 1.4X, mortality 1.5X – May 2020
- Ventilator-associated pneumonia death rate cut in half by Vitamin D injection (300,000 IU) – RCT July 2017
- Low Vitamin D when entering ICU is deadly (acute kidney injury in this case) – Aug 2017
- Increased Hospital, Sepsis deaths if low vitamin D – March 2014
- Vitamin D and Glutamine reduced Trauma Center deaths by half – Matthews March 2017
- Half of Swiss emergency patients had low vitamin D: length of stay, mortality, etc. – May 2016
- Chance of dying in hospital cut in half by just 10 ng higher level of Vitamin D – April 2016
- ICU patients 30 % less likely to die if have enough vitamin D – meta-analysis Nov 2016
- Hospital ICU added high dose vitamin D - malpractice lawsuit costs dropped from 26 million dollars to ZERO - Oct 2016
- Vitamin D and exercise after hip fracture surgery – far fewer deaths – July 2016
- Radio frequency ablation survival doubled with even modest levels of vitamin D – Feb 2016
- ICU death rate reduced 3X when a vitamin D injection changed the PTH – Nov 2015
- Risk of death within 90 days of ICU decreased by 16 percent for 1 nanogram extra vitamin D – June 2014
- ICU survival increased with vitamin D single 540K IU loading dose - JAMA Sept 2014
- Vitamin D intervention increased by 20 percent the survival of critically ill patients- RCT June 2014
- Hospital or ICU death about twice as likely if low vitamin D – March 2014
- 3X more likely to die within 3 months of being in ICU for 2 days if less than 20 ng vitamin D – Sept 2013
- Chance of dying within 1 month of entering hospital is 45 percent higher if low vitamin D – July 2013
- More sepsis deaths when active vitamin D (Calcitrol) was low – May 2013
- Off topic: Use of ICU in month before death has increased to almost 30 pcnt – Feb 2013
- Almost 6X more likely to die after coronary bypass if vitamin D deficient – Dec 2012
- Critically ill 70 percent more likely to die if vitamin D less than 15ng – Jan 2011
VitaminDWiki -
41 studies in both of the categories Trauma-Surgery and Loading Dose (often 300,000 IU) This list is automatically updated
- Vitamin D before surgery helped again (Thyroid in this case) - meta-analysis April 2025
- ICU patients 6X more likely to die if poor response to 570,000 IU of Vitamin D – RCT April 2025
- Vitamin D loading doses typically helped critically ill, but never harmed (21 RCTs) - Jan 2025
- Surgery complications cut in half by 300,000 IU of vitamin D 2 weeks before (hip and knee) – RCT May 2024
- ICU patients typically benefit from 300-500,000 IU of Vitamin D - many studies
- Large dose Vitamin D before surgery was found to help by 35 studies
- Vitamin D is needed before many surgeries – many studies and RCTs
- Half as much AFIB after bypass if 600,000 IU of vitamin D before surgery – RCT April 2022
- ICU mortality reduced by non-oral vitamin D – meta-analysis May 2021
- Taking Vitamin D just before and after surgery helps (open-heart in this case) – RCT Feb 2021
- Half as many problems if take Vitamin D (300,000 IU) before thyroidectomy – RCT Jan 2021
- Fewer days in hospital if 300,000 IU of vitamin D before brain surgery - RCT Feb 2021
- ICU Vitamin D injection (300,000 IU) helped - RCT Feb 2021
- Those getting an injection of 300,000 IU Vitamin D got out of the ICU a week sooner – RCT Dec 2020
- ICU patients greatly helped by Vitamin D loading doses – if gut-friendly – Oct 2020
- Fewer days in ICU after 300,000 IU of vitamin D, but not 540,000 – meta-analysis Aug 2020
- 3X less Septic Shock in children with sepsis getting 150,000 IU of Vitamin D - RCT June 2020
- 100,000 IU daily of Vitamin D for 5 days increased Hemoglobin in Mechanically Ventilated adults – RCT Jan 2018
- Traumatic Brain Injury – 120,000 IU of Vitamin D resulted in 3 fewer days on ventilators – RCT March 2020
- Hip surgery with multiple doses of 50,000 IU of vitamin D weekly both before and after – RCT 2023
- Use of Vitamin D in a trauma surgery - Dr. Matthews on Facebook – Jan 2020
- Surgeries often deplete Vitamin D - 300,000 IU resulted in little response – Nov 2018
- 10 fewer days of ICU Mechanical Ventilation 300,000 IU injection of vitamin D – RCT March 2019
- Intensive Care (ICU) helped by Vitamin D – review of past and on-going studies – Dec 2018
- ICU adults getting 540,000 IU of Vitamin D were 2X more likely to be alive 30 days later – RCT June 2019
- Traumatic Brain Injury recovery helped by injection of 100,000 IU of Vitamin D – March 2019
- Rapidly restore Vitamin D levels with 10,000 IU per kg for children in ICU – RCT 2024
- Esophageal Cancer surgery helped by 300,000 IU of Vitamin D – RCT Sept 2018
- Severe sepsis may be prevented by 400,000 IU of vitamin D – RCT 2023
- Critically ill children – randomized clinical trial to give single doses of up to 400,000 IU of vitamin D – 2019
- Vitamin D loading doses reduce ICU mortality by 30 percent – meta-analysis April 2017
- Hospital ICU added high dose vitamin D - malpractice lawsuit costs dropped from 26 million dollars to ZERO - Oct 2016
- Children in Intensive Care need Vitamin D loading dose of 10000 IU per kg (nearing a consensus) - Oct 2016
- Vitamin D Loading dose - 20,000 IU daily is not enough if obese, etc. (Cancer) great table and chart – Oct 2016
- Rapid Normalization of Vitamin D in Critically Ill Children (10,000 IU per kg) – clinical trial
- VITdAL-ICU - AMA RCT Sept 2014
- Critically ill need vitamin D – how much and which test to use is TBD – Nov 2014
- ICU survival increased with vitamin D single 540K IU loading dose - JAMA Sept 2014
- 540000 IU before ICU raised vitamin D by 25 ng in 2 days – March 2011
- Hip surgery followed by 100000 IU then 1000 IU of vitamin D daily – June 2010
- 600,000 IU intramuscular D3 helped BMD after pancreatic surgery – June 2010
14+ VitaminDWiki pages have MATTHEWS in the title
The list is automatically updated
No results for query.
Dr. Matthews has many followers - both in trauma and surgery
Unfortunately, unaware of any hospital that has adopted Vitamin D as standard of practice for ICU or surgery
The medical profession is VERY slow to change
It took, for example, 80 years for the medical profession conclude that Rickets is fought by vitamin D
Note: Many forms of vitamin D activate the immune system far faster than standard Vitamin D
standard (fat soluble) form takes 10-20 hours to get into the blood stream
- Water soluable vitamin D - skips delay thru the lymph system - guess 5 to 10 hours to get to blood
Also it is more bio-available for people with poor guts, no gallbladder - see Gut-Friendly Vitamin D - Nanoemulsion vitamin D - swished in mouth. Appears to get into blood in < 1 hour
It can also be applied topically if the patient unable to swallow - Calcitriol is a fast acting form - but unaware if it has been tried in trauma or surgery settings
The delay of a Vitamin D test can eliminated 99.9% of the time
Can just ask the person if they have a level > say 50 ng. No need to wait for a test to discover it
25 most-visited pages in Trauma-Surgery
ICU - need Vitamin D ASAP - interview and transcript, Matthews Aug 2024(Cached) Printer Friendly Follow this page for updates2059 visitors, last modified 05 Sep, 2024, This page is in the following categories (# of items in each category) - VitaminDWiki -