Lately I have been experiencing some aches and pain when I wake up in the morning. Sometimes I can’t help it but feel that age is catching up. Yet I believe that the natural health remedies I have been practicing and adopting have helped me regain my youthfulness.

Since I am recovering from that aching achilles heel of mine, I have been careful not to strain my feet or walk too much though I’m a believer that walking is an excellent exercise. In fact, walking is great exercise to lose weight. Moreover, it doesn’t need any specialized training and you can do it free anytime you feel like it. However, to be beneficial, you should do it regularly. Make walking a daily habit or at least 3 to 5 times a week depending on your schedule. I used to walk around those steel buildings near my office to get a good cardio workout in the mornings.

Before you start walking, do some warm up stretching exercises. Stretch only as far as you feel comfortable so as not to pull any muscles. Start with a modest goal, like 15 to 20 minutes at a leisurely pace. Gradually extend the duration and the speed. Walk up one or two gentle slopes. Your walk should be comprised of three segments: warm-up, exercise pace and cool-down.

The more you walk, the better you will feel. Walking is indeed a fantastic natural health remedy to keep your heart healthy. Plus, walking also uses more calories; thus, burning more fats. Its benefits include giving you more energy, making you feel good, helping you to relax, reducing stress, helping you sleep better, helping control your appetite and increasing the number of calories your body uses.

While leaving for an island trip with my whole bunch of friends last week, I experienced some pain on the back of my heel. And since I was on a trip, I left most of my natural health remedies at home and had to bear with the limping for a few days.

My friends started to ask me if I had history of gout as my ankle was starting to swell then. I have heard much about gout but never thought it could happen to me. As such, I was avoiding all kinds of seafood during the trip, just in case it was gout. The most common gout symptoms are discomfort, sourness, swelling and intense pain of the affected area. In most patients with the disease, the first gout symptoms appear at the level of the big toe. And I didn’t have that. The skin around the affected regions turns yellow, appears to be stretched and bruised. People who suffer from gout usually experience pain attacks that may last anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours and in some cases, even days. In most cases, the pain attacks seem to amplify at night and many people with gout have trouble sleeping. The regions affected by gout become very sensitive and people with the disease canít tolerate clothing or shoes. That means, you won’t be able to get on running treadmills.

I started taking some supplements such as Garlic oil, Vitamin E, Glucosamine and Vitamin C when I returned from the trip. I even increase my dosage on green food supplement to boost my immunity and increase the alkalinity in my body. I have yet to do a blood test to determine if my uric acid is on the high but according to my doctor, he didn’t think it was gout causing the swelling. I’m going through some therapies and will monitor the progress and improvement the next few days.