Years ago, I discovered that certain shampoos were pretty much guaranteed to give me consistent “bad hair days.” My hair would either be dry and frizzy or limp and unmanageable.

Back then, I thought it was just my hair type.

Today, I know better. Turns out almost all commercial shampoos and conditioners are full of chemicals that will destroy the health of your scalp and hair.

I have patients who are shocked when I tell them about it. Here they are, buying the most expensive designer hair products, yet their hair is dry, thinning, and losing its luster.

But just look at what I find in these shampoos…

• Sodium laurel sulfate makes your shampoo foam up. But it’s so damaging, scientists use it to irritate skin so they can discover how to heal it. It corrodes hair follicles so badly it can make your hair fall out and not grow back.
• Diethanolamine DEA and Cocamide DEA are also chemicals that help shampoo lather up. They can make your hair dry and unmanageable. Worse, while sitting on the store shelves… or your bathroom counter… they react with other ingredients to form a potent cancer-causing chemical that gets absorbed right through your skin.
• Parabens, like methylparaben and propylparaben, act as preservatives. Parabens not only irritate the skin – which can make your scalp unhealthy – they can also affect your hormonal balance.
• Formaldehyde, found in some shampoo products, is bad news! Excessive exposure can lead to hair loss. It’s cancerous, can cause headaches and respiratory problems… and can even damage your DNA.
• Alcohol. Don’t ask me why anyone would put alcohol in shampoo. It will dry your hair out and irritate your scalp. Always avoid hair care products that contain alcohol.

There are a whole lot more ingredients in shampoo that aren’t good for you or your hair, but these are five of the biggest offenders.

So, if you love having thick, shiny, and lustrous hair, start reading ingredients and selecting the most natural products you can find. Bypass anything that contains the chemicals listed above.

And do your homework! If you can’t pronounce an ingredient, look it up on the internet. Chances are good anything that sounds “scientific” or can’t be pronounced is bad for your hair.

Here are a few more tips to keep in mind while searching for the perfect natural shampoo that’s right for you…

1. If you have dry or damaged hair, look for shampoos that contain these truly natural moisturizers: shea butter, coconut oil, or avocado oil. They’ll not only seal in moisture; they’ll also add shine and keep your hair hydrated throughout the day.

2. For oily hair, lemon and other citrus ingredients can naturally remove that “grimy” feel and leave your hair feeling soft and bouncy. Green tea can also have a clarifying effect.

3. To get rid of dandruff, try products with tea tree oil, eucalyptus or aloe vera. They’ll help revitalize, cleanse, and heal your scalp.

Best Wishes for Health and Beauty,

Tara Smith, ARNP, NP-C

[Ed. Note: Tara Smith, ARNP NP-C, is a board-certified nurse practitioner for Dr. Sears’ Center for Health & Wellness in Royal Palm Beach, FL. Her medical concentration is on aesthetics, teaching and family practice. Tara is conducting research trials into novel ways of naturally boosting HGH and working on a new book, on anti-aging for women.]

Not long ago, I discovered I was poisoning my baby.

It wasn’t intentional. In fact, I thought I was doing everything right.

But then she developed a rash…

At first, I thought it was an allergy, but it wouldn’t go away.

I suspected it was eczema, so I took her to the pediatrician. He confirmed my diagnosis and recommended heavy ointments and creams to keep her moisturized.

The creams would improve her condition a little bit for a couple of days. But the rash kept coming back and getting worse.

I knew I had to become a detective and figure out what was causing the problem.

So I took a close look at all the baby care items I had been using. Those sweet-smelling baby lotions, shampoos, and diaper ointments.

That’s when I began to figure it out…

They all contained parabens. And parabens are bad news!

Had I continued using these products, I would have been leading my daughter down a path toward early puberty, fertility problems, and, even worse, breast cancer.

The worst thing about it is that parabens are found in almost all personal-care products. You’ll find them in shampoo, lotion, shaving cream, deodorant, and more.

You probably use them on your body every single day of your life. And since your skin is the largest organ of your body, these nasty chemicals go straight into your bloodstream.

Once they get inside of you, they mimic estrogen, disrupt your endocrine system, and throw your hormones out of whack.

So I’ve been warning my patients about them. Especially since so many of them have come to me with hormonal issues.

Most of them are already aware that they need to stay away from hormone disruptors like plastics and pesticides. They also know to eat hormone-free chicken and eggs.

But nobody has ever told them that what they put on their bodies is contributing to the problem and increasing their risk of breast cancer.

Here’s what you can do right away to stop poisoning your body with these estrogen mimickers and reduce your chances of getting breast cancer:

1) Read the ingredients in your skin-care products just as carefully as you do your food labels. Avoid anything that has the word “paraben” at the end of it.

2) Look for products with natural preservatives. Some of the best are grapefruit seed extract, citrus seed, potassium sorbate, sorbic acid, phenoxyethanol, and vitamins A, C, and E.

3) Don’t trust the “all-natural” label. Just because a product says it’s natural, it doesn’t mean there aren’t parabens in it. So be sure to check the ingredient list even if the front of the label makes it look safe.

Best Wishes for Health and Beauty,

Tara Smith, ARNP, NP-C

These chemicals pose real dangers to your health, including cancer. And, sadly they are FDA approved and labeled as healthy.

Did you know that mineral oil is a “by-product in the distillation of petroleum to produce gasoline”? And, did you know that baby oil is just mineral oil with fragrance?

Johnson’s Baby Shampoo “No More Tears” formula contains cocamidopropyl betaine, PEG-80 sorbitan laurate, sodium trideceth sulfate, PEG-150 distearate, polyquaternium-10, polyquaternium-10, tTetrasodikum EDTA, quaternium-15, and others. Does this sound like something you want to use on your baby?

Luckily, there are safe, effective, and completely natural ways to protect and nourish your skin, stay youthful and radiant, and maintain your overall health. Today I’ll tell you about healthy alternatives – and where to find them.

But first let’s take a closer look at why you need to take some action to choose alternatives to what you’re having marketed to you.

The Skin Care Industry’s Billion Dollar Lie

Both My Wellness Clinic and my non-profit research center are headquartered in Florida, the Sunshine State. Plentiful sunlight’s one of the main reasons people come here. Yet many of them – including a lot of my patients – avoid the sun like the plague. They live in constant fear of skin cancer. They hide out from the sun. And if they have to be in the sun, they think their only option is to cover themselves with chemical sunscreens.

This is somewhat understandable. The multi-billion dollar skin care industry, with the help of the mainstream medical establishment and the media, has everyone convinced that the sun is Enemy Number One when it comes to skin health.

Here’s what you won’t hear: sunlight’s good for your skin and critical to your overall health and well-being. Get enough of it, and you’ll actually reduce your risk for a wide range of cancers.

What sunscreens are very good at is blocking UVA rays. Yet even that presents a problem, because your skin needs exposure to UVA rays to make vitamin D.

That’s a huge problem, because vitamin D is a vitally important nutrient that insures healthy function in just about every system in your body. Vitamin D’s also the most potent cancer fighter in the world.

A report came out of a Nebraska university showing that vitamin D has the potential to lower the risk of all cancers in women over 50 by 77 percent.1 And in a study published in the journal Anticancer Research last October researchers found that sunlight – about 20 minutes a day for fair-skinned people, and two to four times that much for those with dark skin – can reduce the risk of death from 16 types of cancer, in both men and women.₂

Sunscreens rob you of all these health benefits. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Here are a few more important functions sun lotions deny your body when they prevent sun from activating your skin’s vitamin D factory:

Look for the Hidden Dangers

Not only do they block key skin-based activity that promote health and well-being – there are many common chemicals in most commercial skin care products that actually cause skin cancer and other serious health problems.

The list is long and the names are hard to pronounce, but if you check the label, I’m sure you’ll find several of them in your favorite brands. Here’s a “top-ten” list of the most toxic types of substances in skin care products my Wellness Research team’s identified – and the dangers they pose to your health:

You Can Get Healthy Skin Naturally

Skip the big commercial skin care junk across the board and focus on natural, healthy ways to promote skin health.

Antioxidants represent your first and best line of defense against all forms of skin damage, from age-related wrinkles, sunspots, and cancer to a clear and radiant complexion. They neutralize the action of “free radicals,” rogue molecules that bind to healthy cells, mutate DNA, and accelerate cell death.

These are your skin’s most potent allies against free radical damage. You’ll find all of them in supplement form in health food stores or on line:

Vitamin C: In addition to fighting the action of free radicals, vitamin C reduces inflammation and boosts immune response. Take 500 milligrams twice per day with food.

Carotenoids: Key antioxidants that not only promote skin health, they’re great for your eyesight and also lower your risk of lung and breast cancer. Be sure to look for “mixed carotenoids” when you buy. Take 2,500 IU daily.

Vitamin A: This is another fat-soluble vitamin in the carotenoid family. Take 2,500 IU per day.

Vitamin D: In addition to all the health benefits I outlined before, this is a powerful antioxidant. Take 1,000-2,000 IEUs per day.

Vitamin E: A major ally in skin health. I use 400 IU per day in my patients. Look for “vitamin E as mixed tocopherols” on the label. These are the organic compounds most readily absorbed by your body.

Alpha Lipoic Acid: “The universal antioxidant,” ALA fights free radicals in both the fatty and watery tissues of the body. It also recycles and extends the life of other antioxidants like vitamins A, C, and E. Take 100 mg per day from the alpha lipoic family.

CoQ10: A critical antioxidant every cell in your body needs to convert fuel into energy. Take 30 mg per day, 60 mg if you’re over 60.

Look for skin care containing natural ingredients like plant-based oils (palm, coconut, and jojoba are all great for your skin). These are rich in “phyto-nutrients,” antioxidants, and amino acids – the basic building blocks your skin needs to regenerate, heal, and grow.

1. Lappe et al, “Vitamin D Status in a Rural Postmenopausal Female Population,” Journal of the American College of Nutrition, 2006; 25(5):395-402.
2. Grant WB et al, “The association of solar ultraviolet B (UVB) with reducing risk of cancer: multifactorial ecologic analysis of geographic variation in age-adjusted cancer mortality rates,” Anticancer Research, 2006; 26:2687-2700.