The healing effect of heat treatment was already mentioned in the advanced cultures of the old Egypt (2400 B.C.), but only the medical professionals of the Greek Antique used this therapeutic approach consistently, acknowledged it and called it over-warming (in Greek: Hyperthermia).

"Give me the power to produce fever and I heal every illness", said Parmenides, Greek physician, 540-480 B.C.

In the course of the centuries different areas of application were developed. Occasionally the artificial production of fever with the help of pyrogenic materials was used as fever therapy to fight against infections. These surgeries in organism and body functions can be called active hyperthermia. Passive hyperthermia however means the increase of the body temperature using equipment from the outside. Today it is used particularly in the cancer treatment.