Patient Experience
As a 72-year-old with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, I was terrified of bland food and complicated routines. Dr. Özman didn't just give me a diet list—she spent our entire first session at Acibadem Atasehir Hospital mapping my 50-year culinary habits onto Mediterranean principles. She showed me how to adapt my beloved bean stews and olive oil dishes. Her 'flavor-first' approach using Turkish spices made compliance effortless. Six months later, my HbA1c dropped from 8.7% to 6.2%, and I've rediscovered joy in cooking for my grandchildren. Her follow-up video calls feel like having a nutritional guardian angel.
Our 8-year-old son's selective eating had escalated to nutritional deficiency—he'd only eat white bread and plain yogurt. Multiple specialists labeled it behavioral, but Dr. Özman suspected ARFID. At her dietary clinic, she used interactive food maps and involved him in creating 'taste explorer' missions. She identified sensory sensitivities we'd missed and designed a gradual exposure protocol using Turkish breakfast foods as bridges. The breakthrough came when she had him 'interview' a cucumber with a toy microphone. He now eats 18 new foods voluntarily. She treated his palate with the same respect others reserve for adult patients.
Following emergency gallbladder surgery, my digestive system became a minefield—every meal triggered pain or nausea. My surgeon discharged me with generic 'low-fat' instructions that proved useless. Dr. Özman approached it like a dietary detective: she analyzed my surgery reports, tracked my symptoms against a circadian food diary, and identified bile acid malabsorption patterns others missed. Her phased reintroduction protocol using specific Turkish fermented foods (like şalgam and tarhana) rebuilt my gut function. She even coordinated with my surgeon to adjust medication timing. Where others saw a simple post-op diet, she engineered a gastrointestinal rehabilitation plan.
As a competitive marathon runner with inexplicable performance plateaus and recurrent stress fractures, I consulted Dr. Özman for what I thought would be basic nutrition optimization. Instead, she uncovered a complex interplay between my high-oxalate training diet and subclinical magnesium deficiency. Using metabolic cart analysis paired with micronutrient mapping, she designed a periodized nutrition strategy that synchronized with my training cycles. Her 'fueling waves' concept—different nutrient timing for recovery versus load phases—transformed my recovery. She even created travel nutrition protocols for international competitions. My last marathon time improved by 14 minutes, and my bone density scans finally normalized.