About Dr. Kendall Perrine, ND
Dr. Kendall Perrine is a California-licensed Naturopathic Doctor serving patients in Dana Point (Orange County), Arroyo Grande (San Luis Obispo), and globally through virtual health coaching. She specializes in regenerative injection therapies, homeopathy, IV and IM nutrient therapies, ozone medicine, and natural aesthetics — offering a depth of integrative care that is rarely found in a single practice.
Who I Am
I became a naturopathic doctor the way most of us do: through my own body.
I am a lifelong athlete. Surfing, running, triathlon training, mountain biking, movement has always been central to who I am. And like most athletes who push hard, I have paid the price. Bone fractures from mountain bike accidents. Nagging ligament and tendon injuries from years of triathlon training. Overtraining. Hormonal imbalance that conventional medicine either dismissed or handed a prescription for without ever asking why.
In every one of those moments, I turned to natural medicine, and it worked. Prolotherapy rebuilt connective tissue my orthopedist said would require surgery. Homeopathy addressed the constitutional picture that made recovery so slow. Functional labs showed me what was actually happening with my hormones when standard panels came back “normal.” I learned my own medicine from the inside out, and that experience shapes every patient encounter I have.
My own injuries, and repeated encounters with the limits of a system not built to ask deeper questions, continue to remind me why I chose this path. I am not against conventional medicine. I am for something more complete. A medicine that trusts the body’s own intelligence, that does not reach for a pharmaceutical or surgical solution before understanding why the problem exists in the first place, and that treats the person rather than the diagnosis.
When I am not in the clinic you will find me in the water, on a trail, traveling to learn from practitioners I admire, or deep in a book on some corner of natural medicine I have not fully explored yet. Curiosity is not optional in this work. The best physicians never stop being students.
I trained at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, earning a Bachelor of Science in Kinesiology, and worked in outpatient physical therapy before pursuing my Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine at Bastyr University. At Bastyr I trained in the same foundational sciences as any medical school alongside deep clinical work in homeopathy, botanical medicine, clinical nutrition, hydrotherapy, physical medicine, and minor surgery. After graduating I pursued advanced post-doctoral training in regenerative injection techniques, ozone medicine, aesthetics, and IV therapies, building a scope of practice that is rare for a single provider.
My Approach
Naturopathic doctors are the original root-cause physicians. Long before “functional medicine” became a household term, naturopathic medicine was built on the understanding that symptoms are the body’s signal, not the disease itself. The root of the word “doctor” is teacher. That is what I am here to be.
My practice follows the naturopathic therapeutic order: always beginning with the most foundational interventions first. Food as medicine. Water as medicine. Movement, sleep, and the removal of obstacles to healing. Then botanical medicine, homeopathy, and targeted supplementation. Then the more specific therapies — regenerative injections, IV nutrients, ozone, when the clinical picture calls for them. Nothing is prescribed without purpose. Nothing is used simply because it is popular.
I practice within the vitalistic tradition of naturopathic medicine, which recognizes an inherent healing intelligence in every living organism. This is the philosophical foundation of homeopathy, hydrotherapy, and the nature cure, and it is the lens through which I understand chronic illness. Disease is not a malfunction to be overridden. It is a pattern to be understood and resolved at its source.
I am also honest about what naturopathic medicine does not do well, and when a patient needs a referral or collaborative care, I say so. This is not a medicine of ideology. It is a medicine of results.
I am not a quick-fix doctor. I am looking for patients who are ready to understand their bodies, make meaningful changes, and commit to a process. Genuine healing is not a protocol, it is a partnership.
What is Naturopathic Medicine?
Naturopathic medicine is a distinct primary health care profession, emphasizing prevention, treatment, and optimal health through the use of therapeutic methods and substances that encourage individuals’ inherent self-healing process. Naturopathic medicine includes conventional (Western) and traditional (Eastern), modern scientific, and empirical methods.
Naturopathic practice includes the following diagnostic and therapeutic modalities: clinical and laboratory diagnostic testing, nutritional medicine, botanical medicine, naturopathic physical medicine (including naturopathic manipulative therapy), public health measures, hygiene, counseling, homeopathy, management of prescription medication, intravenous, intramuscular, and subcutaneous injection therapies, and regenerative injection therapies. The scope of practice may vary from state to state. Naturopathic Medicine is guided by the six principles.
“It’s supposed to be a secret, but I’ll tell you anyway. We doctors do nothing. We only help and encourage the doctor within.”
– Albert Schweitzer, German Alsatian theologian, musician, philosopher, and physician (M.D.)
The Six Principles of Naturopathic Medicine
- The Healing Power of Nature: Naturopathic medicine recognizes an inherent self healing process in people that is ordered and intelligent. Naturopathic physicians act to identify and remove obstacles to healing and recovery, and to facilitate and augment this inherent self-healing process.
- Identify and Treat the Root Cause: The naturopathic physician seeks to identify and remove the underlying causes of illness rather than to merely eliminate or suppress symptoms.
- First Do No Harm: Naturopathic physicians follow three guidelines to avoid harming the patient: Utilize methods and medicinal substances which minimize the risk of harmful side effects, using the least force necessary to diagnose and treat; Avoid when possible the harmful suppression of symptoms; Acknowledge, respect, and work with individuals’ self-healing process.
- Doctor as Teacher: Naturopathic physicians educate their patients and encourage self responsibility for health. They also recognize and employ the therapeutic potential of the doctor-patient relationship.
- Treat the Whole Person: Naturopathic physicians treat each patient by taking into account individual physical, mental, emotional, genetic, environmental, social, and other factors. Since total health also includes spiritual health, naturopathic physicians encourage individuals to pursue their personal spiritual development.
- Prevention: Naturopathic physicians emphasize the prevention of disease by assessing risk factors, heredity and susceptibility to disease, and by making appropriate interventions in partnership with their patients to prevent illness.
– AANP American Association of Naturopathic Physicians naturopathic.org
Naturopathic Doctor
Naturopathic doctors are highly trained diagnosticians that rely on the least invasive and least toxic therapies to address the underlying causes of health issues —not just the condition itself. By going to the root of the problem, naturopathic remedies support the body’s biophysiologic processes to prevent and combat disease, reduce inflammation and deterioration.
Naturopathic doctors also specialize in preventative care. Preventative medicine means establishing habits now that help ward off health issues later. Naturopathic doctors are increasingly being sought out to effectively help their patients develop and stick to healthy lifestyle practices that will improve their overall long-term health and well-being.
What is Functional Medicine?
“Functional Medicine is a systems biology–based approach that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease. Each symptom or differential diagnosis may be one of many contributing to an individual’s illness. A diagnosis can be the result of more than one cause. For example, depression can be caused by many different factors, including inflammation. Likewise, a cause such as inflammation may lead to a number of different diagnoses, including depression. The precise manifestation of each cause depends on the individual’s genes, environment, and lifestyle, and only treatments that address the right cause will have lasting benefit beyond symptom suppression.”
How are Naturopathic Medicine and Functional Medicine similar?
Both are aimed at treating the “Root Cause” of disease from a systems approach.
Homeopathic Medicine
Homeopathic Medicine is a complementary medicine developed in Germany by Samuel Hahnemann over 200 years ago. It is based on two unorthodox laws:
- “Like cures like”—the notion that a disease can be cured by a substance that produces similar symptoms in healthy people.
- “Law of minimum dose”—the notion that the lower the dose of the medication, the greater its effectiveness.
Many homeopathic products are so diluted that no molecules of the original substance remain. Homeopathic products come from plants, minerals, or animals. An example of a homeopathic remedy is Apis. Apis is a dilute form of crushed whole bees used to treat bee stings or similar symptoms such as burning, redness, itching and swelling of the skin. Like treats like.
“Like a stone thrown into the center of a pond, ripples of change move slowly outward to the edges, touching every tissue and molecule.”
-Asa Hershoff
Symptoms are the body’s way of expressing its attempt to restore homeostasis, thus homeopathy attempts to support this expression rather than suppress it. An example of suppression is using Tylenol to suppress a fever. “Homeopathy also recognizes that each person exhibits his or her disease in a unique and slightly different way. It is common for different people with the same condition to receive different treatments. Treatments are “individualized” or tailored to each person because of this reason. Homeopathic Medicine is very safe, non-toxic, well tolerated and cost-effective. Most Homeopathic remedies are available over-the-counter at your local health food store. Homeopathic products are often made as sugar pellets to be placed under the tongue; they may also be in other forms, such as ointments, gels, drops, creams, and tablets. Various companies have formulated specialty blends of homeopathic remedies for specific responses in the body.