7 Easy Ways to Make Your Immune System Stronger

Simple strategies of healthy living are vital for keeping the body in tip-top shape to defend against illness.

- By Melissa Diane Smith

You’ll likely always remember 2020 as the year the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic led to a societal focus on external hygiene—including social distancing and frequent hand washing—to help prevent the spread of the illness. But have you paid as much attention to internal hygiene, practices that help optimize your immune system to ward off disease on its own?

It’s true that COVID-19 is a new virus that no one, up until recently, had been exposed to. However, we have to face the fact that we can’t live in a world free of cold and flu viruses, other foreign invaders, toxins, and stressors. No matter what we want to defend ourselves against, building up our immune systems is the key to fighting off many different challenges.

Naturopathic physicians and other holistic-oriented practitioners focus on back-to-basics approaches—simple things that can make a big difference— to increase resistance. The practices that follow aren’t complicated: They promote health, which in turn supports the body’s natural ability to heal and protect itself.

1 Load up on vegetables