The Physiology of the New York Schvitz
A scientific explanation for an ancient Lower East Side indulgence that dates back to at least the 18th century.
Published July 26, 2005
By Ken Howard Wilan
Academy Contributor

Some people like heat. Extreme heat. Hotter even than a NYC subway station in August. The kind of heat that gets your eccrine sweat glands pumping liquid through the skin for major evaporative cooling. Heat that bakes the mind and forces the aptly named “insensible perspiration” to bubble up from tissues through cells and blood. The kind of screaming hot temperatures that make your capillaries dilate to bring more blood circulating to your body’s surface to radiate away the heat. Triple-digit degrees that cause your heart to pound quicker to counter the initial drop in blood pressure caused by the dilation of blood vessels.
In other words, a schvitz.
The Finns have their saunas, but in New York you’ve got the schvitz. A place to relax, kick back, and massively sweat.
19th Century Origins
Perhaps the granddad of New York schvitzes is the East Village’s Russian and Turkish Bath House, around since 1892. Its subterranean sauna looks like a boiler room inside a cave, with seating installed as an afterthought. The dark sweat room reaches temperatures of 194 degrees Fahrenheit, enough to kick anyone’s body into high sweat.
“I’m not a scientist, but it gets impurities out of the system,” claims Dmitry Shapiro, a manager at the bathhouse.
He isn’t too far off. A 15-minute sweating session can lift one liter of water from your body, along with excess salt, lactic acid (which may cause stiff muscles and fatigue), urea (which is a waste normally excreted through the urine), and minute amounts of metals the body has taken in from the environment such as copper, lead, zinc and mercury. So for a workout for your skin, which, as your largest organ comprises about 30% of your body, hang out on the subway platform or try a schvitz.