Animal of the Week April 11, 2011 -- Doctor, doctor, you look like a fish

Yamada Kazuki

It can never be said I am not riding the crest of coming fads... it's only taken me five years since the first fish spa opened in Japan to feature Garra rufa (doctor fish, nibble fish, kangal fish) as animal of the week!

Also known as reddish log suckers, in the rivers of their homelands in the Middle East, these small members of the carp family use their sucker-like mouths to hoover up algae, detritus, and invertebrates. In aquariums, these fish help prevent algal build up. But if you keep em hungry, these fish happily view human skin as a feeding surface, and they rasp off dead and diseased skin. 

This fish massage therapy has been used for many years in Turkey, where patients have visited warm springs to have the fish nibble off their dermatitis and psoriasis. In the past few years the use of fish in beauty therapy has proliferated, with spas using the logsuckers -- although marketing materials show a preference for the name "doctor fish" for some reason -- opening up in Japan, Korea, the USA, Europe, and in 2010 the Sheffield, UK. In the USA, cosmetology (no, I didn't make that up -- someone else did) regulators have decreed that fish therapy should not be used because their code requires that equipment is sterilised after use, and you can't really autoclave a fish. Hmmmmmm, whitebait.

Most fish therapy involves simply dipping your feet in a tank of fish and having them pick away the dead skin, corns, and athletes' foot -- that's what you can get in the market at Camden from time to time, where the concerns about not being able to sterilise the tanks between treatment really strike home. I put a Ben Goldacre mask on for a moment and looked for mentions of Garra rufa in PubMed to see if any studies had been done on their use in the treatment of skin diseases. To date, one pilot study was archived showing that a course of fish therapy dramatically improved moderate to severe psoriasis... well, a course of fish therapy combined with UVA treatment... combined with UVA treatment and post UVA massage with shea butter and aloe vera... well fish therapy improved psoriasis (when given with UVA and unguent) in a self-selected self-reporting sample of 67 patients in a study published in the journal Evidence-Based Complementary and Alternative Medicine (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1697753/?tool=pubmed).  Since 2006, nothing.

The interest in fish "therapy" grows unabated, and you can even buy home kits. In Singapore, a fish massage tank start-up kit will set you back just 175 Singapore dollars (£85). And why wouldn't you get one? See this testimony from one happy customer:

"Now I'm able to enjoy fish spa everyday with my family members. We have so much fun feeding the fish with our leg while watching our favourite television programme. By the way, my skin is now extremely soft and smooth."

http://www.yourdoctorfishspa.com/