These statements are attributed to the well-known great philosophers and physicians of antiquity. From today's perspective, the first of the two sentences certainly needs to be put into perspective. We now know that a system as complex and largely autonomous in its self-healing powers as the human organism can be influenced in detail, but cannot simply be "managed" from the outside with regard to a desired goal such as recovery, remission or healing. Nevertheless, active healing fever treatment is still highly valued at the Hufeland Clinic today and is the most effective method of non-specific stimulation and strengthening of the immune system. A training method for our numerous immunocompetent cells, which can improve the quality of the individual cell, but above all the interaction of the various immune cells. And just as a soccer team cannot be forced to win the Champions League, the quality of the team as a whole and its success depend crucially on the training of the individual and the teamwork. With regard to illnesses, this means that almost every infection (survived) makes the (immune) system stronger; it can react faster and better to foci of infection, but also to tumors, for example. This is particularly important for all inflammatory diseases, but also in the case of oncological diseases, as the effectiveness of an often stressful treatment and its tolerability depend largely on an intact and well-functioning immune system.
Today, we consider active therapy for healing fever, in which the immune response and fever are triggered by the intravenous administration of two bacterial toxins, to be a kind of "immunological reset", a treatment that trains and strengthens the entire immune system, especially in the case of prolonged illnesses in which the body has become accustomed to constant stress and can no longer fight it with its full potential.
Contraindications are an excessively weakened organism, acute infections and, in the case of oncological diseases, usually metastases in the bones.
A detailed description of active healing fever treatment and its history, written by Dr. W. Wöppel, the founder and first Medical Director of the Hufeland Clinic, can be found at the following link.