Hopefully, this is in the right place. I recently heard about a sort of spa/beauty treatment that involves the use of garra rufa to eat away dead skin cells. They say that it helps speed up the growth of new cells by having the fish eat away the dead cells. Anyone else heard of this? Is it true?
Doctor Fish?
- Thread starter lilim10
- Start date
I did stumble onto a website offering to supply the fish in the hundreds. They had a couple pictures of people with their feet submerged and surrounded by a crowd of fish. Personally I think it'd really creep me out. Besides I'm ticklish =/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_fish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doctor_fish
The fish used were tilapia, not Garra rufa as alleged although G. rufa do indeed eat dead skin cells.
It feels like every month, the whole Garra rufa thing somehow manages to reemerge as news. I'd assume that most Garra and similar fish could do the same thing.
HAHAHA The USDA has ordered a halt to the practice (not that anyone listens to them) citing cleanliness/disease potential issues (likely because they aren't getting a cut of the action). check you local laws first.
