Help with poor immune system

[Caramello]

Hey everyone,

I'm one of these people that continually gets viruses - either from my work environment (high school) or from stress/depression of LTTTC, or from poor diet/exercise. Most of the time the infection ends up in my throat.

I am currently taking multivitamin tablets (Centerium - 1 a day); Garlic, Horseradish and Vitamin C tablets (2 a day) and an iron/foelate tablet.

I also take Diaformin EX and the Pill.

One of the recommendations that my GP had to boost my immune system was to drink Green Tea.

I am ok with having the tea but my problem is that I rarely drink anything with caffiene in it, as it sends my blood pressure racing and can affect my sleeping patterns really badly.

So question 1 - does green tea have caffiene in it? Will it affect my sleep?

Question 2 - is it worth going to a specialist? If so, who? I have had bad experiences with natropaths before, but this was on the TTC front. I have also seen dieticians but became frustrated. I have no idea who I should be seeing.

Question 3 - anything else? These viruses are really driving me nuts and affecting my time at home and at work...

[Phteven]

Green tea does have caffeine in it but it can be minimised by double brewing it.
So, you pour almost boiling water into a pot with your tea. Let it sit a few minutes then pour the water off (into a bucket for your plants if the thought of tippng it down the drain gives you the erks) then pour more water in and the second brew will have much less caffeine. A third brew will have evn less.
Don't use boiling water because boiling water can destroy some of the compounds - near boiling or boiled then sat for a few minutes is better.

I think you can buy it decaffeinated but frankly I always worry about how they get the caffeine out. Also it might be best to look for an organic one because lots of teas are grown in countries that don't have a great deal of regulation for pesticides, herbicides and so on.
The Madura brand is a fairly high quality tea who have quality control for chemical residue.

[Caramello]

Thanks Chloe - I'll try that with the tea...