Omega-3 and carotenoids in archers: Sivaperuman 2026

For nine months, 72 athletes in Singapore (air rifle and air pistol shooters, recurve and compound archers, and competitive video gamers) took one capsule a day: half took a supplement of lutein, zeaxanthin and meso-zeaxanthin in a fish oil rich in omega-3, half a placebo of sunflower oil. Sixty-seven finished the study.

In the supplement group, blood carotenoids rose (lutein up 88%, zeaxanthin up 107%, meso-zeaxanthin from zero to 0.226 μmol/L), and so did the carotenoid score measured on the skin (up 25%). Among the vision measures, only contrast sensitivity at 6 cycles per degree in dim light changed, in the dominant eye of shooters and archers (p=0.008); visual acuity and the participants' own rating of their vision did not.

For shooters and archers together, after converting scores to percentages so they could be compared, the total for 60 shots went from 86.69% to 90.27% in the supplement group and from 84.21% to 83.34% with the placebo (p=0.047, partial eta squared 0.081). Aiming time and group size did not change: in the archers the estimated group went from 76.36 to 87.27 mm with the supplement and from 104.00 to 108.00 mm with the placebo (p=0.712). The sleep health score improved in the archers, from 8.45 to 9.91 against a fall from 9.20 to 8.60 with the placebo (p=0.023), and in the gamers, but not in the shooters.

The study is a randomised, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial, registered with ISRCTN (ISRCTN18761383) and run between September 2023 and February 2025. Allocation was computer-generated in blocks of ten, and the capsules looked identical. The active capsule held 13.3 mg of lutein, 11.7 mg of meso-zeaxanthin and 1.7 mg of zeaxanthin, with 312.3 mg of DHA, 53.5 mg of DPA and 78.7 mg of EPA; the products had been checked by third parties, including for substances prohibited in sport. At the start there were 22 archers (12 in the active group and 10 on placebo), 29 shooters and 21 gamers; the mean age of the sample was 27.5.

Before and after the nine months the authors measured carotenoids in the blood and skin, vision (acuity, and contrast and glare sensitivity in bright and dim light), sleep by questionnaire, and performance in a simulated competition. The archers shot indoors under controlled lighting at 18 metres: 15 minutes of unlimited practice, then 60 arrows in six ends of 10 within 45 minutes, on a ten-ring face, in their usual stance. Scores were recorded by hand without decimals; a Mantis X8 sensor on the riser recorded aiming time, and group size was estimated from the scores rather than measured on the target face. Coloured sight inserts, filters, visors and caps were banned, earplugs were worn and no caffeine was allowed in the previous 24 hours. Scores from the archers and from the shooters, who fired at 10 metres seated with the gun on a rest, were converted to percentages and analysed together.

The score result is borderline: p=0.047 on one of many outcomes analysed, with no correction for multiple comparisons, and the authors themselves ask readers to bear that in mind. Part of the difference also comes from the placebo group dropping off in the later ends (down 6.11% in the fifth end of 10) rather than from the active group improving. Archers and shooters were pooled, so the study cannot say whether the effect is there in archers alone, who numbered about twenty by the end, split between recurve and compound in proportions the paper does not give. No sample size calculation was done beforehand.

The vision gain concerns contrast in dim light, while the archers were tested indoors under controlled lighting: the link between that finding and the score is the authors' hypothesis, not something measured. Group size for the archers was derived from the scores, which makes it a rough estimate. Finally, the conflict of interest statement deserves attention: one author consults for companies selling supplements with these ingredients and is a shareholder in the firm that certified the capsules, another consults for nutraceutical companies, and a third works for a company selling carotenoid and omega-3 supplements. Funding came from a charitable foundation.

For an archer, the finding worth keeping is small and uncertain. In this study, nine months of supplementation with macular carotenoids and omega-3 went with slightly higher scores in an indoor simulated competition, but the result was obtained by pooling archers and shooters, it sits just under the significance threshold, and it did not show up in aiming time or group size. The same applies to sleep: the improvement in archers concerns about ten people per group.

It is therefore no basis for saying that a supplement adds points. It is a first trial, run by authors with declared links to the industry, that would need repeating on archers alone, outdoors as well, with the number of participants set in advance; the authors themselves propose a confirmatory study along those lines.