In short, a healing reaction is the body’s response to curative medicine. Once a disease is annihilated the organism works to restore homeostasis. This is often experienced as an aggravation of symptoms and, on a superficial level, resembles the disease state that an individual sought to address in the first place. But there is a critical difference: when compromised by disease the body is ill-equipped to restore balance and can kill itself trying. In contrast, when a disease-causing agent is dislodged from the system with medicine the body can successfully complete the restorative work it had previously been doing in vain.

With the aid of principled medicine, the body need not kick into overdrive nor produce a flurry of symptoms. Accordingly, healing reactions are typically a lot gentler than disease symptoms; they are a fainter impression of what was or what could have been. Moreover, the experience is usually underlaid with an overall sense of well-being and increased robustness. As such, healing reactions should not be anticipated with trepidation or scorned as setbacks; they should, rather, be welcomed as sure tell signs of effective remediation.