A study underscoring the importance of vitamin D status in pregnancy is trending on social news and entertainment website Reddit, with more than 8,300 “upvotes” since its posting on Saturday.

The new study published in the Journal of Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism found that children tend to have stronger muscles when their mothers have higher vitamin D levels during pregnancy. Researchers measured vitamin D levels of 678 pregnant women, then tested their children’s grip strength at four years of age, finding a positive association between the two. A less pronounce association between vitamin D levels and muscle mass was also observed.

“These associations between maternal vitamin D and offspring muscle strength may well have consequences for later health; muscle strength peaks in young adulthood before declining in older age and low grip strength in adulthood has been associated with poor health outcomes including diabetes, falls and fractures,” lead researcher Dr. Nicholas Harvey said in the news release from the University of Southampton. “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.”

Click here to view the Reddit post and upvote and share it to keep it trending.

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