Taking vitamin D supplements could help regain substantial loss muscle strength even years after women have gone through menopause, a new study shows.

Vitamin D deficiency is a common problem in postmenopausal women worldwide, creating muscle weakness and a greater tendency for falling.

Researchers from San Paulo, Brazil, found in this study that women taking the supplements had a 25.3 percent gain in muscle strength compared to a 6.8 percent decline in those who took a placebo. In addition, the women not taking the vitamin D were twice as likely to fall.

The double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted over a nine-month period. Muscle mass was estimated by total-body DXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry), as well as by handgrip strength and through a chair-rising test.

The vitamin even benefited women who had gone through menopause more than 12 years before, the researchers said, in their presentation at the annual meeting of the North American Menopause Society. (NAMS).

"While this study is unlikely to decide the debate over Vitamin D, it provides further evidence to support the use of vitamin D supplements by postmenopausal women in an effort to reduce frailty and an increased risk of falling," said Wulf H. Utian, M.D., executive director of the organization.