Drug & supplement interaction

Bear's Garlic + Nivolumab

Nivolumab brand name: Opdivo.

No Known Interaction

Medically reviewed by Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS · Updated June 2026 · Pair last verified Sep 20, 2026

The bottom line No known interaction

We found no known interaction between Bear's Garlic and Nivolumab in our sources. Absence of a documented interaction is not the same as proven safety, and does not guarantee one does not exist. Do not start, stop, or change a medication or supplement based on this page; confirm with your pharmacist or doctor first. Additionally, although there is no interaction, the label for Nivolumab states a food rule worth keeping to.

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Interaction report

Bear's Garlic and Nivolumab

We checked these two against our interaction database. Here is what we found.

No Known Interaction Found

We did not find a documented interaction between Nivolumab and Bear's Garlic in our sources. This does not guarantee that the combination is completely free of risk — there is often limited research on supplements and herbal products, especially around drug interactions.

If you decide to take both, the practical routine is simple: add one new thing at a time and note the date you started it. If the combination is going to disagree with you, it usually shows in the first days to a couple of weeks — and a start date turns “I’ve been feeling off” into something a pharmacist can actually work with. Do not stop a prescribed medicine on your own.

Always talk with your pharmacist or doctor before making changes to your medications or supplements, particularly if you take several medications or have an ongoing health condition.

Bear's Garlic safety at a glance

Bear's Garlic overall Use caution Generally safe as a food, but supplement-level safety is not well studied.

Pregnancy Use caution Food amounts are likely fine, but avoid concentrated supplements due to lack of safety data.

Breastfeeding Use caution Food amounts are likely fine, but supplement safety is unknown, so use caution.

Safety guidance is general; always confirm with your pharmacist or doctor for your situation.

Still wondering about combining Nivolumab and Bear's Garlic? Ask Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS directly ›

How we checked

Why No Interaction Is Listed for Nivolumab

Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes, not just single drug names. Nivolumab is filed under a single classification — antineoplastics. Bear's Garlic has documented interactions with 1 drug class — the most serious being anticoagulant/antiplatelet drugs (moderate) — and none of Nivolumab’s classifications are among them.

Classification data comes from our licensed Natural Medicines dataset. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded there, so this describes how the check was run — it is not a safety guarantee.

Keep it in perspective

Bear's Garlic Does Interact With Other Medications

Bear's Garlic has 122 moderate known drug interactions in our database — Nivolumab isn’t one of them. If you take anything else, check it against the full list below.

Moderate 122 No known interaction 2,708 (incl. Nivolumab)

Taking anything else?

Check Another of Your Medications Against Bear's Garlic

Covers the 2,830 medications we’ve checked against Bear's Garlic. Pick one to open its full report.

What to actually watch for

What Nivolumab’s Own FDA Label Lists

This is not an interaction — none of it involves Bear's Garlic. These are the most notable effects listed in the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of Nivolumab’s own FDA label, for the medication by itself. Knowing the drug’s own list makes it easier to work out the likely cause if something new turns up while you take both. 10 of them are worth acting on rather than waiting out — marked below.

Low magnesium Worth acting on
A change in thyroid levels Worth acting on
A stroke or mini-stroke Worth acting on
Severe muscle breakdown Worth acting on
Dehydration Worth acting on
Trouble swallowing Worth acting on
Bleeding in the gut Worth acting on
High potassium Worth acting on
Low sodium Worth acting on
Low blood sugar Worth acting on

Showing the 10 most notable of 67 label-listed effects — ranked by how unusual each one is across medicines generally, with serious effects weighted up.

From the ADVERSE REACTIONS section of the FDA label for Nivolumab. Read the label on DailyMed › Where a percentage is shown, it is the share of 96,645 voluntary FDA FAERS reports for Nivolumab that mention that effect — a reporting proportion, not an incidence rate and not evidence the drug caused it. Bear's Garlic’s licensed record lists no adverse effects our clinical vocabulary could match, so there is no Bear's Garlic side to compare — that is a limit of the record, not a statement that Bear's Garlic has no side effects.

How to take them

Some Nivolumab Products Have a Food Rule — Bear's Garlic Should Not Break It

At least one FDA label for a product containing Nivolumab says to take it on an empty stomach. Most supplements — Bear's Garlic included — are taken with a meal, so the easy mistake is swallowing both together at breakfast. Where that rule applies, keep Nivolumab on its own and move Bear's Garlic to a meal later in the day.

This may not be true of your version. Food instructions belong to the product, not the ingredient: two Nivolumab products can carry different directions, and extended-release forms often differ from immediate-release ones. The label we read is quoted below — check the directions on your own box or bottle, or ask your pharmacist, for how to take the exact product you were given.

Table 2: Recommended Dosages of Intravenous OPDIVO in Combination with Other Therapeutic Agents Indication Recommended OPDIVO Dosage Duration of Therapy Unresectable or metastatic melanoma 1 mg/kg every 3 weeks with ipilimumab 3 mg/kg In combination with ipilimumab for a maximum of 4 doses or until unacceptable toxicity, whichever occurs earlier Adult patients and pediatric patients aged 12 years

From the Dosage and Administration section of the FDA label we read for Nivolumab — where that label names a specific product, the instruction is that product's. Read the label on DailyMed ›

A food rule is not an interaction — it is about how much of the medicine you absorb. The directions that came with your own product, and your pharmacist, outrank anything on this page.

Everything else you take

See Every Supplement That Interacts With Nivolumab

This page covers Bear's Garlic only. If you take other supplements — a multivitamin, a sleep aid, something for joints — the Nivolumab page lists 1 supplement it has a documented interaction with, worst first, each one explained.

The most serious there right now: American Pawpaw (minor).

By severity: 1 minor.

From our pharmacist’s overview on the Nivolumab page

“Nivolumab (Opdivo) is an immunotherapy infusion that trains the body's own immune system to recognize and attack cancer cells, the kind of drug you might expect to carry a long list of supplement warnings. It does not.”

Reviewed by 2 · Jul 18, 2026

Open the Nivolumab interaction page

How much people look this up

Where Bear's Garlic and Nivolumab Sit Against Everything Else

Out of every supplement and medication people look up on HelloPharmacist, here is where these two land this week — and which way each has been moving.

Supplement Bear's Garlic

Steady interest

#892 of 1,452 supplements looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today

Medication Nivolumab

Top 25%

#483 of 2,830 medications looked up here in the last 7 days

29 days ago today

Position among everything looked up on this site, not a measure of how commonly either one is used or how important it is. A supplement can climb this list because of a news story. It counts every request to the page, automated ones included, and nothing here identifies anyone.

Where does our data come from?

Source: the Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) clinical database — the evidence-graded professional reference for herb & supplement interactions.
Citation library: 103,510 references behind our interaction content, 65,311 of them resolved to verified PubMed/DOI sources. See every Bear's Garlic reference on this page ↓
Freshness: we automatically re-check this combination every week — this pair was last verified September 20, 2026. The Bear's Garlic and Nivolumab records this page draws on were last updated June 22, 2026.
What “no known interaction” means: no documented interaction in the sources above — not a guarantee of safety. Supplements are studied far less than prescription drugs, so we say exactly what the evidence supports, and nothing more.

Data structure & sourcing designed and verified by Dr. Brian Staiger, PharmD, BCPS.

Supplement

About Bear's Garlic

What is Bear's Garlic?

Seasoning and culinary flavoring
Heart and blood vessel health
Blood pressure support
Digestive complaints
General 'cleansing' or detox traditions

Bear's garlic is a wild relative of garlic enjoyed mainly as a mild-tasting food. Some early laboratory studies hint at heart and blood vessel benefits, but solid human evidence is lacking, so it should be viewed as a flavorful food rather than a proven remedy. As food it is generally well tolerated, but supplements or large amounts have not been well studied for safety.

Allium ursinum · Amaryllidaceae · Leaves and bulb · Fresh leaves, dried herb, tinctures, capsules, juice, teas, culinary pesto

An interaction check asks whether these two react with each other — it does not ask whether Bear's Garlic is a good idea for someone in your situation. Here is what our Bear's Garlic record says about it on its own.

Bear's Garlic: dosing

There is no established standardized dose for bear's garlic. As a food, people use the fresh leaves in cooking to taste during its spring season.For supplement forms such as capsules or tinctures, there is no proven medicinal dose.

From our Bear's Garlic monograph — the full record covers uses, side effects and every documented interaction.

Read the full Bear's Garlic monograph & all interactions

Medication

About Nivolumab Injection

What Is Nivolumab Injection Used For?

Brand name: Opdivo

Opdivo (nivolumab) is used to treat many types of cancer in adults, and some in patients 12 years and older. It can be used alone or in combination with other therapies depending on the cancer type and stage. Cancers it treats include melanoma (including after surgery to reduce the chance of the cancer coming back), non-small cell lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, advanced renal cell carcinoma (kidney cancer), classical Hodgkin lymphoma, squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck, urothelial carcinoma (bladder cancer), colorectal cancer with specific genetic features (MSI-H or dMMR), hepatocellular carcinoma (liver cancer), esophageal cancer, gastroesophageal junction cancer, and gastric (stomach) cancer.

Some uses require the tumor to test positive for a protein called PD-L1, and some are specific to certain stages of disease or prior treatments received. Your oncologist will determine which use applies to your situation.

Most-Reported Side Effects for Nivolumab

From FAERS, the FDA’s public side-effect reporting system (96,645 reports, all brands). Reports are voluntary and are not proof the drug caused the effect.

Malignant neoplasm progression 9,878 reports

Diarrhea 5,251 reports

Fatigue 4,195 reports

Fever 3,721 reports

Nausea 3,182 reports

See full Nivolumab Injection drug information

Keep checking

Other Drugs & Bear's Garlic

Browse every other medication we’ve checked against Bear's Garlic — both the ones with a known interaction and the ones without. Select any drug for the full detail.

0Major

122Moderate

0Minor

2,707No known interaction

122 Moderate 2,707 No interaction

Moderate

122 interactions

Showing 60 of 122 moderate interactions — see all 122 on the Bear's Garlic page.

No interaction 2,707 drugs checked — show the list

We also checked Bear's Garlic against these medications and found no known interaction in our sources. Open any page to confirm.

Showing the 60 most looked-up of 2,707 medications checked with no known interaction — see the full Bear's Garlic list.

See the full Bear's Garlic interactions page

See every supplement checked against Nivolumab, ranked by severity

Evidence & sources

Bear's Garlic References

The 3 references that drive our Bear's Garlic monograph and interaction data, from the evidence-graded Natural Medicines (TRC Healthcare) database. Citations with a link open the study on PubMed or the publisher’s site.

Carotenuto A, De Feo V, Fattorusso E, et al. The flavonoids of Allium ursinum. Phytochem 1996;41:531-6. PubMed
Bobak M, Skodova Z, Marmot M. Beer and obesity: a cross-sectional study. Eur J Clin Nutr 2003;57:1250-53. PubMed
Koh-Banerjee P, Chu N, Spiegelman D, et al. Prospective study of the association of changes in dietary intake, physicial activity, alcohol consumption, and smoking with 9-y gain in waist circumference among 16 587 US men. Am J Clin Nutr 2003;78:719-27..

Medication overviews come from MedlinePlus (NIH); supplement label data from the NIH Dietary Supplement Label Database. Content is written and reviewed by licensed HelloPharmacist pharmacists — see our data sources and editorial standards.

Pharmacist Counseling Corner

Taking Bear's Garlic and Nivolumab Together: Common Questions

Is it safe to take Bear's Garlic with Nivolumab?

We do not list a known interaction between Bear's Garlic and Nivolumab. That does not guarantee the combination is risk-free, so confirm with your pharmacist or doctor — especially if you take other medications or have a health condition.

Should I take Bear's Garlic and Nivolumab at the same time of day?

At least one FDA label for a product containing Nivolumab says to take it on an empty stomach, and supplements are usually taken with a meal — so taking them together at breakfast is the easy mistake. Where that applies, keep Nivolumab on its own and move Bear's Garlic to a meal later in the day. Food instructions belong to the product rather than the ingredient, so check the directions on your own box. This is about absorption, not an interaction.

How was the Bear's Garlic and Nivolumab combination checked?

Interactions in our licensed database are recorded against drug classes. Nivolumab is filed under 1 classification, and Bear's Garlic has documented interactions with 1 drug class — none of Nivolumab's classifications are among them. A medication can belong to classes beyond those recorded in our dataset, so this describes how the check was run rather than guaranteeing safety.

Does Bear's Garlic interact with any other medications?

Yes. Bear's Garlic has 122 documented drug interactions in our database — Nivolumab is simply not one of them. If you take anything else, it is worth checking each one; they are all listed on this page.

Does Nivolumab interact with any supplements?

Yes. Nivolumab has documented interactions with 1 supplement in our database — Bear's Garlic is not one of them. The Nivolumab interaction page linked on this page lists every one, ranked by severity.

Written and reviewed by the HelloPharmacist editorial staff. Our editorial policy

Where next

Keep Exploring

Bear's Garlic monograph Uses, safety profile, and every drug interaction in one place Nivolumab Injection drug information The full plain-English guide to this medication Nivolumab supplement interactions Every supplement checked against Nivolumab, ranked by severity Supplement interaction checker Check any supplement or product against your medications Browse medications A–Z Every drug we’ve checked against herbs & supplements References The 3 citations behind this page Ask a pharmacist Free, personal answer from our licensed team

Still Have a Question About Nivolumab and Bear's Garlic?

Our pharmacists answer your medication & supplement questions — free.

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This information is for education only and is not a substitute for professional medical advice. Always check with your pharmacist or doctor before starting, stopping, or combining supplements and medications.