This article is so stupid I had to post it.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...?GT1=43001


ALEXANDRIA, Virginia - Ready for the latest in spa pampering? Prepare to dunk your feet in a tank of water and let tiny carp nibble away.

Fish pedicures are creating something of a splash in the Washington D.C. area, where a northern Virginia spa has been offering them for the past four months. John Ho, who runs the Yvonne Hair and Nails salon with his wife, Yvonne Le, said 5,000 people have taken the plunge so far.

"This is a good treatment for everyone who likes to have nice feet," Ho said.

He said he wanted to come up with something unique while finding a replacement for pedicures that use razors to scrape off dead skin. The razors have fallen out of favor with state regulators because of concerns about whether they're sanitary.

Ho was skeptical at first about the fish, which are called garra rufa but typically known as doctor fish. They were first used in Turkey and have become popular in some Asian countries.

But Ho doubted they would thrive in the warm water needed for a comfortable footbath. And he didn't know if customers would like the idea.

"I know people were a little intimidated at first," Ho said. "But I just said, 'Let's give it a shot.' "

Customers were quickly hooked.

Tracy Roberts, 33, heard about it on a local radio show. She said it was "the best pedicure I ever had" and has spread the word to friends and co-workers.

"I'd been an athlete all my life, so I've always had calluses on my feet. This was the first time somebody got rid of my calluses completely," she said.

'Feels like your foot's asleep'
First time customer KaNin Reese, 32, described the tingling sensation created by the toothless fish: "It kind of feels like your foot's asleep," she said.

The fish don't do the job alone. After 15 to 30 minutes in the tank, customers get a standard pedicure, made easier by the soft skin the doctor fish leave behind.

Ho believes his is the only salon in the country to offer the treatment, which costs $35 for 15 minutes and $50 for 30 minutes. The spa has more than 1,000 fish, with about 100 in each individual pedicure tank at any given time.

Customer Patsy Fisher, 42, admitted she was nervous as she prepared for her first fish pedicure. But her apprehension dissolved into laughter after she put her feet in the tank and the fish swarmed to her toes.

"It's a little ticklish, actually," she said.

Ho said the hot water in which the fish thrive doesn't support much plant or aquatic life, so they learned to feed on whatever food sources were available including dead, flaking skin. They leave live skin alone because, without teeth, they can't bite it off.

Next up: full-body fish treatments?
In addition to offering pedicures, Ho hopes to establish a network of Doctor Fish Massage franchises and is evaluating a full-body fish treatment that, among other things, could treat psoriasis and other skin ailments.

Ho spent a year and about $40,000 getting the pedicures up and running, with a few hiccups along the way.

State regulations make no provision for regulating fish pedicures. But the county health department which does regulate pools required the salon to switch from a shallow, tiled communal pool that served as many as eight people to individual tanks in which the water is changed for each customer.

The communal pool also presented its own problem: At times the fish would flock to the feet of an individual with a surplus of dead skin, leaving others with a dearth of fish.

"It would sometimes be embarrassing for them but it was also really hilarious," Ho said.

I saw this on that show where the Americans are in a Japanese game show. One of the teams won a spa day and that's what they did. They called them Doctor Fish.

I would try it....why not??

I'm quite ticklish. I betcha they tickle.

eeewww

gross

Nasty

I would totally try that. You know it's cleaner than the shared tools they use.

Awesome.

i wanna see a before and after picture. calluses completely gone? dry heels are my problem

love 2 try it.

I would do it
I'd even try leeches!

I'm all for natural therapies.
My dog washes our dishes

Reminds me of childhood - sitting on the docks at the lake each summer

I don't think I want to feed fish my dead skin cells.

Poor fish.

Ewwwww!!!!

Have they brought back leeches yet????

CarrieLee said:

At the hospital system I work for we use them and maggots.


[warning: graphic photo]

http://www.livescience.co...ggots.html


http://www.fda.gov/fdac/f...leech.html

I can't look at the photos...but are you effing serious???!!!!

CarrieLee said:

Yep...they're both saving people's lives and limbs! Here's the story without the pics...

Maggots and Leeches: Old Medicine is New

Pam Mitchell knew the maggots were working when her foot started bleeding.

Four years ago, a small cut on Mitchell's left heel turned into an diabetes-related infection two inches wide and down to the bone. Another wound developed in her right foot, owing to dry, cracked skin. Doctors tried everything--creams, antibiotics--but nothing worked.

"My doctor told me to give it up, see a psychologist, and have my foot amputated," she recalls.

Mitchell, now 52, had to make a decision soon because the powerful antibiotic that doctors prescribed for her infection was also wreaking havoc on her bones. Mitchell was preparing to undergo a dangerous bone marrow transplant when a friend remembered watching a TV show about European doctors using maggots to treat wounds like Mitchell's. With nothing to lose, she tried it.


Mitchell found a dermatologist willing to perform the procedure, and soon had 600 live maggots wriggling inside the wound on her left foot, 400 in her right, where they were sealed in gauze and left for two days.

Grudging acceptance

When it came time to remove the maggots, Mitchell's doctor was more than a little repulsed. "He had never dealt with them before and he said it was like watching a Wes Craven movie," Mitchell remembers. He was also impressed, because the maggot treatment seemed to be working.

Over the course of 10 such treatments, wounds that months of expensive procedures could not mend began to heal.

Today, Mitchell walks normally and both wounds are completely healed. She is now a member of the board for the Biotherapeutics Education and Research Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes the medical use of maggots.

"They didn't just save my feet, they saved my life," Mitchell told LiveScience. "They're better than anything man can come up with because I've tried everything."


A growing number of doctors are starting to agree. Maggots are useful because they help remove dead tissue and expose healthy tissue, a process called debridement. Maggot debridement therapy was popular in the early part of the last century but went out of vogue when antibiotic use became widespread.

But maggots are now making a comeback, and they are increasingly being used to treat ulcers, gangrene, skin cancer, and burns. Research also suggests maggots may help decrease the risks of infections after surgery.

Leeches, too

Maggot therapy is just one example of a medical approach called biotherapy -- the use of living animals to aid in medical diagnosis or treatment. Leeches are another example.

In ancient times, leeches were used to treat everything from headaches to ear infections to hemorrhoids. Historians think Egyptians used leech therapy 3,500 years ago. The treatments were back in vogue during the Middle Ages, and again in the 1800s.

Nowadays, leeches are routinely used to drain blood from swollen faces, limbs and digits after reconstructive surgery.

They are especially useful when reattaching small parts that contain many blood vessels, like ears, where blood clots can easily form in veins that normally drain blood from tissues. If the clots are severe, the tissues can die -- drowned in the body's own fluid -- because they are deprived of oxygen and other vital nutrients.

Scientists are also looking at using leeches to treat other ailments. Studies led by Andreas Michalsen, a researcher at the University of Duisburg-Essen in Germany, suggests leech therapy may lessen the pain and inflammation associated with osteoarthritis, a debilitating disease where bones can grind against one another because the cartilage has been worn down.

The gross factor

Maggots and leeches are so effective that the FDA last year classified them as the first live medical devices. The treatments can be relatively inexpensive, according to the National Institutes of Health. A container of 500-1,000 disinfected maggots last year cost $70.

Scientists have not figured out exactly how either critter works, but quite a bit is known. Maggots eat dead and infected tissue and other infectious organisms, which are later killed in maggots' guts. They secrete enzymes that break down dead tissue, turning it into a mush they can then slurp up.

Leech saliva is made up of a potent cocktail of more than 30 different proteins that, among other things, helps to numb pain, reduce swelling and keep blood flowing.


Michalsen said his patients are rarely repulsed by the leeches and instead take a morbid interest in the creatures. "They feel sympathy for the leeches," he said.

Pam Mitchell expressed a similar sentiment about the maggots that saved her life. "When I first saw them, I didn't want anything to do with them." But they sort of grew on her. Maybe those that roam household garbage are gross, she concedes. "Otherwise, I just see them as being different."

^ Thank goodness for the return of some of the old ways that WORK

applekisses said:

that's intense!

Mach said:

It's amazing, isn't it?!

Wow....but if I ever get hemorrhoids I will NOT be using leeches on my asshole! Sorry, I won't do it!

Sweeny79 said:

nasty, but Id still do it...

Genesia said:

The chop shops in the mall can be very unsanitary but if you go to a spa, and I know there can still be a freak Paula Abdul incedent, they disinfect their tools and the pedicure tubs after each person.

That is fucking disgusting

CarrieLee said:

CarrieLee said:

If it worked and I had hemorrhoids, I WOULD!!!!

ZombieKitten said:

you're officially on my org crush list now

SirPsycho said: