Vitamin D supplements may help women build muscle after menopause. In a Brazilian study, postmenopausal women in their 50s and early 60s who took 1,000 international units (IU) of vitamin D-3 daily for nine months had 25% more muscle mass than women who took placebos. Many of the women had low vitamin D levels at the start.

To learn more about the sunshine vitamin, read Bottom Line’s The Truth About Vitamin D,