Originating from a small town in Turkey, these spas where people soak themselves in pools with skin-eating fishes are now mushrooming all over the world, in Korea, China, Japan and Singapore. In these pools, the fishes with lick or suck off dead skin cells from the human body. Since they only devour the dead cells, the healthy skin will be untouched and left to grow healthily. The entire process has been described to be painless with the human participants only experiencing tingling where the fishes are eating their skin.
Why fishes are those you ask. A type of small tropical fish called the Garra Rufa, belonging to the family of carp fish and fondly nicknamed the Chinchin Yu meaning the nibble fish or simply called the doctor fish. An interesting thing to note is that the skin-feeding behaviour only fully manifests when the fishes face conditions where food supply is unpredictable and limited. From this, it suggests that the Garra Rufa evolved to start eating human skin when faced with prolonged condition of limited food. The external factor of insufficient food causes this change in its behaviour.
These fishes can swim in waters as hot as 43 degrees, hence can be put in hot springs with ease. The fish is said to be able to clear up skin conditions like psoriasis. However, even those free from skin diseases make faithful trips to these spas as they reported having smoother, cleaner skin after their soaks.
To see a short video of the
skin-feeding process.Animals and insects have been known to help human beings in a myriad of ways, where dogs make good friends, horses for transportation, earthworms to keep the soil fertile and the list can go on and on. The Garra Rufa with its healing and beautifying tendencies are also helpful to Man, albeit on a more superficial level.
References:
Magic "Fish Spa" Attracts More, http://english.cri.cn/3100/2007/08/10/1461@260072.htm
Psoriasis Treatment in Turkey, http://www.psoriasisfishcure.com/researches/fishes.htm
Spas Offering Skin-eating Fish Therapy, http://www.local6.com/news/9231139/detail.html