Hair dye. Sunscreen. Band-Aids.

If you believe this week's medical news, the stuff in your bathroom cabinets may pose a substantial health risk. Or it may not. It's hard to tell with the mixed information we hear in the media.

If one of your missions in life is to cover your grays, dyes and henna are mere cover-ups. A prized healer in ayurvedic medicine, Indian gooseberry or emblic myrobalan (a.k.a. alma) is used to treat premature grays among other syndromes. The alma tree is sacred in India where it is worshipped as mother nature and believed to nurture humankind (the leaves, fruit, and flowers are used in healing and worship).