An old school yoga programme, designed to improve pelvic health, could help women who suffer from urinary incontinence, according to a new study published in Female Pelvic Medicine & Reconstructive Surgery.

UC San Fransisco (UCSF) researchers discovered that the specifically designed yoga training program can help women gain more control over their urination and avoid accidental urine leakage.

"Yoga is often directed at mindful awareness, increasing relaxation, and relieving anxiety and stress," said first author Alison Huang, MD, assistant professor in the UCSF School of Medicine.

"For these reasons, yoga has been directed at a variety of other conditions metabolic syndrome or pain syndromes but there's also a reason to think that it could help for incontinence as well."

Huang and her colleagues recruited 20 women from the Bay Area who were 40 years and older and who suffered from urinary incontinence on a daily basis.

Half were randomly assigned to take part in a six-week yoga therapy program and the other half were not.

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WHAT: A urinary tract infection (UTI) is a bacterial infection that affects the urinary tract (the organ that stores and releases urine).
HOW: UTIs occur when germs, usually bacteria, enter the urethra and then the bladder. The infection can eventually spread to the kidney. Symptoms include cloudy or bloody urine, a strong need to urinate and a low fever.
FIX IT: If you do feel any of the symptoms above, doctors can distinguish between a small infection or a kidney one -- in most cases, patients are put on antibiotics.

WHAT: A interstitial cystitis (IC) is a painful condition that causes inflammation of the bladder's walls.
HOW: Experts say an IC can be caused by a bacterial infection, however, some say the cause of this disease is unknown. Symptoms include a painful pelvis and in some cases, urinating more than 60 times a day.
FIX IT: Currently, there is no cure for IC, but there are treatments depending on the individual to often ease the pain.

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Yoga Programme To Strengthen Pelvic Floor Could Help Women With Urinary Incontinence

Yoga teacher Ramdev has been banned from holding a yoga camp in Amethi

Ramdev was to hold yoga camps on Wednesday and Thursday in Amethi. But the district administration has refused permission, saying he misuses these gatherings to make political speeches. Amethi goes to polls on May 7 in the eighth round of the staggered national election that ends on May 12. (poll schedule)

"Baba Ramdev had asked for permission for a Yoga camp. He held similar camps in Lucknow and Fatehpur but he gave political speeches. And you cannot mix yoga with political speeches, so we have not allowed it," said Jagatraj Tripathi, the district magistrate of Amethi.

Ramdev, who has declared his support for the BJP and its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, has refuted the Congress' allegation that he has been campaigning for the BJP at his yoga camps. (read: After Ramdev's honeymoon remark, Election Commission's fresh guidelines)

Rahul Gandhi is contesting for the third time in Amethi, which has voted him to Parliament since he debuted in politics in 2004.

Ramdev faces two police complaints after he controversially said last week, "He (Rahul) goes to houses of Dalits for honeymoon and picnic. His mother told him that if he marries a foreigner, he won't become the PM. He does not want to marry an Indian girl. His mother wants him to first become PM and then marry a foreigner." (read)

The yoga teacher has been accused of insulting Dalits, and has been banned from holding programmes in Lucknow in UP, and Himachal Pradesh. (read: Ramdev's meetings banned in Lucknow)

He had earlier apologised for the comments, but yesterday, he defiantly said he was entitled to speak his mind, and Rahul Gandhi was using Dalits for photo-ops.

Story First Published: April 29, 2014 10:23 IST

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After 'honeymoon' jibe, Ramdev's yoga camp banned in Rahul Gandhi's Amethi

After yoga guru Baba Ramdev was banned from conducting programmes in Himachal on Monday and booked in Maharashtra and Rajasthan under the Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act for his honeymoon remarks targeting targeting Rahul Gandhi, the yoga guru said he would move the courts against the curbs.

Terming the ban on his yoga camps as undemocratic, Ramdev alleged the government had pressurised the Election Commission to put the curbs and accused the Congress of distorting his remarks against Rahul, that have been slammed as anti-Dalit, for vote-bank politics.

Chief electoral officer Narinder Chauhan said Ramdev had been refused permission to hold yoga camps in Himachal on the directions of the Election Commission, which instructed the states to ensure that no political activity be allowedthrough non political programmes like yoga shivirs. We have passed on the instructions to district administrations for compliance. The request of Patanjali Yoga Peeth of Baba Ramdev to hold yoga shivirs at Kangra, Chamba and Rehan has not been granted, Chauhan said in Shimla.

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The permission to hold camp in Kangra, which was scheduled for Monday, was withdrawn on Sunday evening by the local subdivisional magistrate. Ramdev, who reached Kangra on Monday, alleged that the government was stopping his yoga shivirs, which are non-political, in an undemocratic manner. The government has pressurised the Election Commission to put curbs on yoga shivirs up to May 16 but we would move the court and challenged the orders of the Commission. We got relief in such cases from Gujarat and Karnataka governments and hope to get similar relief in Himachal also, he said.

On Saturday, First Information Reports were filed against Ramdev in Lucknow and Sonbhadra in Uttar Pradesh over his remarks. Authorities in Lucknow and Amethi on Sunday banned all his programmes till May 16.

More trouble for Ramdev

Two more FIRs have now been lodged against him in Nagpur and Jaipur under the SC/ST Act.The complaint against him in Nagpur comes after a number of Dalit organisations, including the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committees Schedule Caste cell and corporator Sandeep Sahare along with Bhimsena, Nationalist Congress Party, Youth Congress, Aam Aadmi Party and Triratna Bodi Foundation lodged a protest at the Panchpaoli police station.

An MPCC delegation met Assistant Commissioner of Police Baba Dongre on Sunday to hand over a memorandum demanding that Ramdev be booked under the act following which offences were registered, police said.Protesters blackened Ramdevs poster outside his local clinic Patanjali. Activists threw slippers at the poster and burnt it, police added.

In Jaipur, a case under sections 153A, 504 of the Indian Penal Code for abusing, hurting sentiments and insulting people and 3(1) of the SC/ST act was registered after Ravi Kirad, a student of RajasthanUniversity, filed an FIR against Ramdev, said a Gandhi Nagar police station officer. The yoga gurus effigy was also burnt by angry activists at Ambedkar Circle, Jaipur.

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Facing action in more states, ban in Himachal, Ramdev to move court