A Functional Medicine Conversation with Dr. Hale Handan Sarıkaya: Everything Starts with a Seed

Hello dear friends. The guest of this conversation is Dr. Hale Handan Sarıkaya, a specialist in internal medicine and functional medicine. I wanted to talk with a physician who looks at the causes beneath illness as a whole; our conversation started exactly there and reached all the way to the soil. The video is in Turkish.

The illusion of the quick fix

We began with a cycle most of us know: a complaint appears, we silence it quickly, and a while later it returns from somewhere else. Dr. Sarıkaya calls this the illusion of the quick fix. This is where functional medicine parts ways with the usual approach; instead of quieting the symptom, it asks why it happened. I know this from breathwork too: walking past the signal the body gives usually brings you back to the same place.

Stress, emotions and the body

We talked about how chronic stress settles in the body and how emotional load can prepare the ground for physical complaints. What Dr. Sarıkaya described in a physician’s language, I see in the eyes of participants in my workshops: something pushed down inside speaks up somewhere outside. That is why, in healing work, I never treat making room for emotion as a separate subject.

The gut, food and the clock

The most concrete part of the conversation was about food. We talked about why the gut is called the second brain, how what we eat speaks with the body, and how the timing of meals can matter as much as the meals themselves. Dr. Sarıkaya described how pausing eating after the evening hours can give the body a space to rest. I would like you to hear this not as a rule but as an idea to try and observe in your own body; everyone’s rhythm, work and needs are different.

How do you recognise real organic food?

Here the word came to me. Starting from the founding story of Şifa Köyü, I talked about what real organic growing means, how certification works, and how you can tell whether a product is genuinely clean. My favourite part was this: you do not need a field to build your own little healing village. A balcony, a few pots and heirloom seeds are enough. I cannot say enough about what touching the soil does for a person, and Dr. Sarıkaya confirmed it from a physician’s point of view.

Topics in the conversation

• The differences between conventional and functional medicine
• How emotional load and stress settle in the body
• Gut health and how food speaks with the body
• Meal timing and giving the body room to rest
• Recognising real organic food and how certification works
• Growing your own healing garden on a balcony or in pots

The full conversation is above. I collect these interviews in the Healing Conversations playlist on YouTube; if you prefer to listen, “Healing Conversations with Merve Tüfekçi” is on Spotify.

This conversation is for general information only; it does not replace medical diagnosis or treatment. If you have an ongoing health condition, please do not make major changes to your diet or routine without talking to your doctor.

My thanks to Dr. Sarıkaya for her knowledge and warmth. If you start growing a seed on your own balcony, share a photo with me; it would make me very happy. With love.

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