Regular intake of vitamin D during pregnancy helps babies develop stronger muscles, a latest study states.
Study authors at Medical Research Council Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit (MRC LEU) at the University of Southampton studied 678 women.
The researchers found that with regular consumption of vitamin D the grip and muscle mass of children increases by age four.
Senior lecturer Dr Nicholas Harvey said, "These associations between maternal vitamin D and offspring muscle strength may well have consequences for later health."
He further explained that muscle strength increases in young adulthood and gradually declines in older age. Furthermore low grip strength in adulthood is often linked to health problems such as diabetes, falls and fractures.
"It is likely that the greater muscle strength observed at four years of age in children born to mothers with higher vitamin D levels will track into adulthood, and so potentially help to reduce the burden of illness associated with loss of muscle mass in old age," Dr Harvey said in a press release.
Professor Cyrus Cooper, professor of rheumatology and director of the MRC LEU at the University of Southampton, said, "This study forms part of a larger programme of research at the MRC Lifecourse Epidemiology Unit and University of Southampton in which we are seeking to understand how factors such as diet and lifestyle in the mother during pregnancy influence a child's body composition and bone development.This work should help us to design interventions aimed at optimising body composition in childhood and later adulthood and thus improve the health of future generations."
The study was published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism.
