This story first appeared a couple of days ago and we decided not to post it, but it has been so widely reported by many outlets the story has taken on a life of its own. Here is the version from Fox News: Fish Give Pedicures
I understand that by making a small cut in the foot, pirana fish will carry out a much more complete debridement
There is also firm EBM that demonstrates the fact!
An article about a spa offering “fish-pedicure” was published in Swedish Metro today. During the treatment 200 fishes eats dead and hyperkeratotic skin. The article ends with having the owner suggesting this treatment not only as a beauty treatment but also for patients with eczema and psoriasis. At first I just laughed about the article, but later I started to think about having patients with chronic diseases, maybe immune-suppressed, using this as treatment. Wonder if they ever heard of infection risk?
Is there anyone that have come across this type of “treatment” before, are fishes stealing our jobs :wacko:
Björn
Interesting article on Wikipedia at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_fish
Garra rufa and Cyprinion macrostomus are used in the treatment of psoriasis.
From a page move: This is a redirect from a page that has been moved (renamed). This page was kept as a redirect to avoid breaking links, both internal and external, that may have been made to the old page name.
Here in Essex people leave their white stillettos on the side & take the plunge in their bikinis for whole-body-exfoliation by these putrid little fish..... only in Essex I say, only in Essex!!
Nah, gorblimey, them Essex tarts'd take orf their bikinis n'all, innit.
(Assuming they wear them - they don't always wear knickers I gather).
For our international audience; Essex is a county to the east of London where they speak a garbled language called 'estuary English' and the ladies (at any rate, some of them) are famed for their warmth and negotiable affection.
Just reading my local paper AND,, they are here now in surrey/south London hairdressers @ £30 a 25 minute go or the De-Luxe £45 minute go followed by mosturise,file and polish. Further time is £1 per minute in 15 minute sessions.
The claim:-
"Discovered in the early 1800s, these amazing fish have been reported to be beneficial in battling skin diseases,muscle trauma and joint disease as well as rheumatic and neurologic disorders.People suffering with psoriasis have seen results after therapeutic sessions with the Doctor fish over a period of time spent in the spa waters"
My question is , apart from the infection risk, how many serious skin conditions are going to be missed or ignored by these people??
I also have a "nail studio" cutting DM1 /2 nails that subsequently came to me with OC due to the nailcare they received.
Is there any real point in registering these days?? If the public are being protected by the HPC how is this being allowed to happen ??
Perhaps when the HPC go to establishments giving out "freebies" in the name of "is your practitioner registered" they should call into these places and leave the coasters and pencils ( paid for by us I assume) there to educate hairdressers as to the dangers of: their ways???rolleyes:
Still if ya cant beat em ........ Leeches for sale !! get your Leeches here!! roll up roll up Leeches cure all from overpronation to hemorrhoids to gum disease roll up !!!:wacko: !!
In scotland there was a groupon (widely known internet voucher) for a £9 fish pedicure.
And hundreds of people were willing to 'test the water'.
This kind of treatment has become very popular.
I'm not sure the older generation (that I treat privately) will entertain this craze. But I think the younger generation would rather go to a salon for callous removal, for more or less the same price.
Hi All
This is my first time here and I was going to pose a question about this fishy business when I saw this thread. A few of these places offering fish pedicures have opened up around me, in fact, one directly opposite me. People have said 'don't worry, it won't replace a podiatrist', maybe not but its taking a sizeable chunk of my business.
I try to counteract it by saying you could get just as much skin off by soaking your feet for 10 mins without the fish then rubbing it off (I haven't had it done so I'm not saying this publically yet).
I have been told by the 'Expert' (read salesperson) that runs one of them that
the bacterial wipe used on the feet before dunking will kill all germs
the water is sterilised by filtration (when questioned further she said it had a UV light)
the water is filtered 10 times per hour
the environmental health check the fish once a week (what about the punters)
and you cannot catch a fungal infection in water
I know there has been some joking about this on this thread and believe me, if my business was raking in loads and I felt secure, I would be laughing it off too but its touching a raw nerve at the moment.
What does anyone think of the 'precautions' they take? Has anyone experienced it? is their UV system really going to kill all chance of catching TP, VP's etc etc?
1. They don't / can't remove any callus. Poor little sods have no teeth. They give you a vicious suck, but that is all. Pedicure is probably the right word for it but they do a lot less than a beatician with an emery board.
2. The only patients who will go for fish then NOT go to podiatry are the ones who never actually needed podiatry in the first place. If your stock in trade is pedicures, then they ARE a threat. If not, don't worry! They are in a different market!
3. The panic about cross infection / vps / fungal infections is a bit disingenuous. I don't worry at the swimming pool, and that includes in the shower where the water is not chlorinated. I don't worry at the beach. I rarely panic when I put on a pair of still warm bowling shoes. I'd happily let my kids swim in a lake or paddle in a stream which is doubtless full of all sorts of bugs. And I doubt the swans exit the area to do their toilet. Provided there are no open wounds, I really don't see this as a big deal!
One of the clinics I work from has these things. Fascinating little beasties. I don't see it affect my side of things in the slightest and I'm not waiting with baited breath for the first case of fish transmitted Ebola!
But then again, I know people who claim tea tree oil is proof against legionaires disease, doing much the same thing.
I think these fish are a lot like maggots. Capable of drebriding loose or dead tissue but incapable of anything else. Obviously since you can't sterilize them (I tried one at 134 for 6 mins and it make a horrid mess) they're bog all use for broken skin.
And yeah, not a lot of use for neurological disease :wacko:.
As I said. They are not a serious threat to anyone. Not to us, unless your patients have nothing more than a bit of loose ID skin and not the patients unless they are immunocomprimised AND have broken skin. In which case if they are stupid enough to dip their feet in a fish tank they frankly deserve what they get.
I really can't see what the fuss is about. Its a gimmick, nothing more. I have far more concerns about things like ped eggs which are about as sterile and a lot more capable of causing ulcers.
I've been 2 have feet soundly 'sucked' by the fishy beasties. Was asked if there were any cuts etc on feet - don't know what she would have done if I'd said yes??? Feet were vthen dunked in a foot spa & then dangled into tank of fishies. Quite relaxing, but has been said in previous post, I could have rubbed that amount of skin off after soaking feet for 30 mins. But the point is that I would NEVER do that - don't have time :(. I found the whole experience very relaxing, if a bit odd, sitting in a shop in happy hartlepool, where I practice. I can't see it taking business of pods, most folks that I've spoken to wouldn't even think about it? At least now I can tell people wht I think about it if they ask.
The town I live in ( south west england) now has four fish therapy clinics - all have sprung up in the last six months. For those that dont know this is where the customer immerse their feet in a tank of small fish that suck of the "dead" skin! Has anyone been and had it done? I have been asked by patients if it is ok for them to have it done and have been a bit wary about this, sterility being a major factor. The fish and water I presume is changed regulaury but cannot be chemically sterilsed or the fish would die. I bet the fish cant enuc a corn either!
hann,
this sounds absolutely disgusting to me.
I did e-mail a shop that was providing this type of service asking questions from an animal welfare point of view. They told me that when the fish were fed-up (literally) they were taken away and "rested".
They told me that hygiene was very strict but didn't specify how this was achieved.
Personally there is nothing on this earth that would persuade me to put my feet in a bowl full of fish ( and no doubt their pee-pee and poo-poo :eek: ) for any kind of "therapy" - yuch !
Thousands dying every day of poverty and preventable illness. Thousands sleeping rough on the street in towns and cities across the world. And this society has time to worry about the most humane way to kill prawns!?
The world has officially gone completely bloody barking.
I'm going to gibber in the corner. Later I shall be eating some whelks I purchsed from a fish van at the garden centre. I shall probably wonder if the whelks were plunged screaming into boiling water or humanely stunned by placing them between the rails of a hornby train set first.
I had a go at
it in Prague over
Xmas. They made you sign a release form to verify you have no infectious disease. They also checked that I had no open wounds on the skin or infected nails etc.
All very well, but they did not realy sterilize the feet well before I placed them in the tank. (Did give my feet a good doze of Clotrimazole when I got back to the Hotel)
The fish did an Ok job but since I do
not have bad feet I am not sure a half an hour would do the trick. Generally I think and a one hour minimum is necessary . I also though about it as a addition to my praxis but the Hygiene aspect of it is highly questionable.
Psoriasis & Eczema are not
infectious dieases so
that is not such a risk,
I have had patients that speak highly of it in combination with salt showers.
I personally
will stick around on the obervers bench on this one:rolleyes: