Staff 
August 11, 2012Yes, you read right, there is such a thing! The Fish Pedicure has been in the news a lot lately, mostly for its novelty value. A number of spas in Asia have been offering this for a while now and a few salons in the USA have started to offer it. The whole idea of the fish pedicure is to improve foot health by using the small fish species, Gara Rufa to eat the deal callused skin on the fish. They have been label the ‘Dr Fish’ because of this activity. The fish are supposed to just eat the callused and dry skin on the foot and leave the normal skin alone. It is a squeamish way to get a pedicure and is certainly not for everyone. There is no research on the effectiveness of this approach, but there are plenty of testimonials as to how well it works! The only problem that is emerging is the risk of infection which has led some regulatory agencies to shut some spas down and in some cases, ban them all together. The main concern is over infection control issues related to the fish themselves and the use of the water that they are in. If you are considering a fish pedicure, then this infection risk needs to be taken into account, especially if you have any broken skin on the foot.