Question
Will eating garlic or garlic tablets interact with my HIV medication?
13 April 2011. Related: All topics, Drug interactions, Supplements and herbs.
Answer
Thank you for your question.
Garlic as part of your diet is perfectly fine, but higher dose supplements have the potential to interact with some drugs.
This depends which HIV meds you are taking. Garlic supplements have the potential to interact with NNRTIs and PIs. Saquniavir has a caution to not be taken with garlic supplements.
Garlic is broken down by the body is the same way as these HIV meds. Taking both together could change the amount of HIV meds in your blood. Talk to your doctor about this so that your drug levels can be monitored when you are taking the garlic supplements in case any adjustments need to be made to the dosage of your HIV meds.
Hi, garlic as part of a regular diet is not a problem. When taking garlic supplements which are more than expected for a regular diet, garlic can interact with ART.
For this reason garlic is healthy, but in higher quantities can cause problems with some HIV medication. What medication are you taking yourself?
I eat garlic as a part of my diet and dietitian promote to eat garlic to keep your body health. I don’t why they say garlic is not okay for people who are taking ARVS. I am +A , dietitian said that I must eat garlic. It’s good for my blood.
Hi Tongai, thank you so much for your kind words. It’s good to hear that you are doing well.
Hey guys l would like to wish you happy holidays. You have made such a huge impact in my life and i wish you loads of blessings. I tested HIV positive in 2016 and this site helped me tremendously when i started talking my tablets. I do hope you realise have made a significant impact internationally and have assisted people with no access to the proper information pertaining to HIV and living postively. Please continue with the good work.
Hi Dayo,
What you’ve been told isn’t true. It’s OK to drink alcohol as well as eat garlic. Neither of these things will interact with your ARVs.
Hi, I’m dayo. The doctor at my health care center said i should avoid alcohol and garlic while taking medication. She said taking alcohol and garlic would prevent the drugs from working as it should. How true is this please?
Hi Cklo,
Eating raw garlic won’t boost your immune system, its the ARVs that will do this.
Hi, I am taking teevir. But recently read some articles saying that eating raw garlic is good and can boosting immune systems.
Just wanna to know that will eating raw garlic will interact with the meds I am taking ( teevir) ?
Hi Taiwo,
Thanks for this comment. Yes, eating garlic might not suit everyone. But the higher dose garlic supplements can interact with some HIV meds. But eating garlic and using it in cooking is fine.
I eat garlic with my medications but nothing got worst. But pls don’t try it may not work for u as our body system. I taiwo from nigeria