Chanda balaji clinic

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced today that he’s filed a lawsuit in federal court against aggressive and threatening demonstrators outside an abortion clinic in Queens. Schneiderman says the demonstrators are preventing patients from entering Choices Medical Center with illegal physical contact and “horrifying” harassment tactics. Choices has always been beset by a group of particularly aggressive anti-abortion protesters, who tend to swarm the clinic on Saturday mornings. Some of them are affiliated with local church groups, as Gothamist writes, including Church at the Rock in Brooklyn, Grace Baptist Church in Woodlawn, and Bright Dawn Ministries in Brooklyn. (Church at the Rock specifically positions anti-abortion protesting as one of its “ministries.”) Three years ago, I was treated to the unforgettable site of a man outside Choices climbing a small step ladder with a megaphone, the better to loom over and scream insults at women … [Read more...] about NY Attorney General Sues Anti-Abortion Groups for Viciously Harassing Patients Outside Queens Clinic

An unproven stem cell therapy conducted by a Florida clinic has blinded three patients in an apparent clinical trial gone horribly wrong. The incident showcases the extent to which unscrupulous clinics will take advantage of desperate patients—and how the lack of government oversight contributes to the problem. As reported in the New England Journal of Medicine, the clinical trial—if it can be called that—involved three women between the ages of 72 and 88 who were suffering from macular degeneration, a common progressive disease of the retina that leads to loss of vision. The women, all of whom were experiencing various degrees of vision loss, sought the help of a Florida clinic, which claimed to be testing a stem cell procedure designed to treat macular degeneration. Sometime in 2015, a week after stem cells were injected into their eyes, the women became blind. Two years later, doctors say there’s virtually no chance the women’s vision will be restored. … [Read more...] about Florida Clinic Blinds Three Patients in Botched ‘Clinical Trial’

Medical clinics that provide largely unregulated stem cell treatments are popping up all over the U.S. But a new study out Thursday suggests that these clinics aren’t all the same, and some might be more likely to give patients unsafe or useless treatments than others. Previous studies have broadly tried to gauge what the direct-to-consumer stem cell industry looks like in the U.S. and Canada. These clinics claim that conditions such as lower back pain or sports injuries can be treated through the transplantation of stem cells, the building blocks of our body that mature into various types of cells. By using these cells, the theory goes, you can regenerate parts of the body that might not heal otherwise, or at least speed up the healing process. Advertisement The authors behind this new study, all based at Arizona State University (ASU), decided to focus on a smaller slice of stem cell clinics closer to home. They looked at the online marketing of nearly 170 stem cell clinics … [Read more...] about Investigation Into 170 U.S. Stem Cell Clinics Finds Some Scary Trends

Stem cell clinics selling bogus, unregulated therapies to treat serious problems like cancer are a major problem in the US, and in November the Food and Drug Administration at long-last announced that such “unscrupulous” critics would bear the wrath of the federal government. Instead of scaring them straight, the crack down seems to have emboldened at least a few clinics. In the Seattle area, a stem cell network is advertising its non-FDA approved offerings—and using a quote from the FDA announcement of the crack down to do it. Advertisement The ad, which ran in The Seattle Times as well as on the website for the clinic, Generation Stem Cell, quotes the beginning of FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s statement, which expresses excitement about stem cells and regenerative medicine. “We’re at the beginning of a paradigm change in medicine with the promise of being able to facilitate regeneration of parts of the human body, where cells and … [Read more...] about Shady Stem Cell Clinic Twists FDA Quote to Peddle Unregulated Treatment

Buying a smartwatch can be intimidating. They’re expensive, most of them come with similar features, and it can be difficult for first-timers to navigate the technobabble marketing speak to find a smartwatch that suits their needs. That’s exactly the issue Fitbit is trying to solve with its Versa Lite Edition. At $160, it’s less than half the price of a GPS-only Apple Watch Series 4 and aside from push notifications, it doesn’t really mess with more complicated smart features, like ECG readings and voice assistants. Advertisement The Versa Lite Edition is exactly what its name sounds like—a stripped down version of Fitbit’s popular Versa smartwatch. In terms of specs, it’s got exactly the same display as the Versa (and the same hideously large bezels), runs on the same Fitbit OS, and has most of the same sensors too. The main thing is that it pares down some of the more “advanced” metrics and specs offered on the Versa and Versa … [Read more...] about You Won’t Miss the Features Cut From the Fitbit Versa Lite