In contrast to active healing fever treatment, in which the patient's entire immune system is stimulated into an active immune response, passive whole-body hyperthermia focuses on strengthening effects. We use modern whole-body hyperthermia for chronic inflammatory diseases to activate the metabolism, increase enzyme activity in the body (serves, among other things, to cleanse the blood and cells) and strengthen the healthy immune system. In oncological diseases, whole-body hyperthermia is usually used to intensify the effect of simultaneous cytoreductive measures (directed against tumor cells). During the two hours that the patient spends in the Heckel bed under constant monitoring, the body temperature usually rises to 39.5 °C, but sometimes to well over 40 °C. Apart from lowered blood pressure values, which can often be eliminated by administering fluids (infusions), this is an effective treatment with very few side effects.
Depending on the individual case, we also combine moderate whole-body hyperthermia with fever-inducing mistletoe administration at the Hufeland Clinic. In this case, the patient's immune system is stimulated beforehand in the same way as for active treatment of fever - but more gently than in this case - which results in a moderate increase in body temperature. The subsequent whole-body hyperthermia (usually on the following day) reinforces the effect of the mistletoe administration, so that we speak of semi-active hyperthermia in this context. Moderate whole-body hyperthermia also has a firm place in our holistic therapy concept for chronic inflammatory diseases such as Lyme disease, post- or long-COVID syndrome and rheumatic diseases.
Oncothermia® is a form of treatment that focuses directly on tumors and metastases in oncological diseases. The tumor area is heated to around 44 °C (111 °F), which is barely noticeable for the patient. This can intensify the effect of chemotherapy, antibody treatment, endocrine therapy or high-dose naturopathic medication such as artemisinin or curcumin. One advantage here is that Oncothermie® is not harmful to healthy tissue, which is often an advantage over conventional radiation, and we often see a halt or reduction in tumor growth with intensive treatment during the inpatient course.