Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Cure for Fish Phobia?


Hmm, seems we zipped past our 800th post with Dinah's Dear Fat Doctor.  

So, you've heard of our Sex with Fish post.  And Sex with Fish, Revisited (of course).

Now comes Sex with Feet Feet with Fish. A Virginia salon is pioneering the use of little bitty carp to nibble away your worries... and your dry, flaking skin.

Just dip your tired dogs in the warm water and a hundred puny, puckering, piscine podiatrists suck your feet clean of dead skin.  AP writer Matthew Barakat writes about the tiny "doctor fish", also known as garra rufa, in the Baltimore Sun:

Customers were quickly hooked.

Tracy Roberts, 33, of Rockville, Md., 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.

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

It seems that Turkey has used these dermophilic fish for some time to treat psoriasis. For those of you with fish phobias, this might be an excellent way to use exposure therapy ("immersion" therapy, even) to desensitize you to fish.  But can you charge it to your health savings account?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

What weird timing, I came on line to look up lithium-exacerbated psoriasis. I don't think "dump yourself in a vat of skin-eating fishies" will fly with this particular patient.
Can you write me a post about the use of B-complex and inositol as alternative treatments for li-exacerbated psoriasis?

And if you're bored, Victor and Clink are coming over to make pizza, dog biscuits, and cookies for the camper. Oh, you might actually be working.

Dinah

Anonymous said...

I used to hate wading in ponds in upper NY state where fish hidden in the murky waters would suck on leg skin.

Roy said...

The only thing I've ever done with psoriasis that gets worse with lithium is to stop the lithium.

I've only just now heard of the use of inositol, which is also used to treat bipolar. There is a favorable double-blind, placebo-controlled trial with 15 pts (I've requested the author to send me a pdf of the article).

TP... just think, now you can pay for the privilege :-)

Anonymous said...

thought i will make ypu some cash by clicking on your google ad..........but guess what...your link does not work!!!
You gotta get it working or it is just taking the space and you might never know why you stopped making as much money via google ad sense!!

I am not even going to say anything about pedicure thing as you could be joking...

phoebe

Anonymous said...

I saw that on the news the other night. Umm, actually - maybe it was a current affairs show or something. Aww, aren't they cute and what a great idea!

I hope not too many of the little suckers get hurt.

Anonymous said...

If you want to see the fish munching in action, you can check out this video: fish eating my feet
I can't say that it is my idea of a relaxing pedicure ...

shraddha said...

This link has nothing to do with humor or your post , other than word pedicure.

I have admired this woman for long and have had the priviledge of knowing little about her life since 2006.
What i find most tragic is her son was born at 33 weeks.My twins were born at 32 weeks, and have no issues of premautrity, on the other hand, her son is very very sick.Still on oxygen at 4 and has now developed dumping syndrome.
She is such a sweet lady and a police officer and I feel so so bad for her.
She recently had a crying bout at her pedicure and she talks about it here.
After laughing about pedicures in your blog, her blog braught tears in my eyes.
http://www.shareyourstory.org/webx/Share%20Home/Share%20Your%20Story/Blogs/Kyle/

Phoebe

Anonymous said...

you might think i am spamming you but i am not
i studied for last one hour and just took a break and what is the yahoo headline?....pictures of the week...
your blog picture made it as the picture of the week at yahoo!!!!!!!
http://www.yahoo.com/s/923261

Anonymous said...

ICK!!! I actually do have a phobic reaction to fish thus chose not to view your links. Systematic desensitization would need to start at a much, much, much lower level of stimulus.

Anonymous said...

Can I opt for some beta-blockers to calm me down in fish-situations instead?

Dragonfly said...

I think this treatment was on Ugly Betty a while back......
I personally will stick with pumice.

Anonymous said...

I found this post very amusing. I can't imagine anyone afraid of fish actually doing this. I hope exposure therapy includes hand holding and a sedative. I am just kidding about that of course!

Perhaps a journey to the belly of the beast would be better, like the Baltimore Aquarium! At least there is a lot of glass between you and the fish!

Anonymous said...

My dad got bitten in the nipple by a fish several times last week and now he, quite the manly man, is a bit nervous about going back in the lake.

Am I sick in the head for thinking this is hilarious?