Jordan Karlesson
Almost every aspect of Bruce Lee’s life is shrouded in mystery — or at least tainted by suspicion.
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His lightning-fast skills defined him as one of the greatest athletes ever, not only in the field of martial arts. Bruce Lee’s precision and speed were so impressive that they led to questions not only about how he acquired the skills — but how such a strong human being could have died at such a young age.
But now experts are citing a new cause of death for Lee. It’s a creepy one, given that one of the action hero’s best-known quotes is “Be like water.”
The Death of Bruce Lee
Lee was a successful actor-director, martial artist, martial artist instructor, and philosopher. He even founded a hybrid martial arts philosophy, Jeet Kune Do.
He was praised for his speed, accuracy and high kicks in films Fist of Fury, The Big Boss, Golden Harvest’s Way of the Dragon, and the tv show The Green Hornet.
In May 1973, in the midst of dubbing Enter the Dragon in Hong Kong, the budding movie star fainted unexpectedly. In another instance not too long after, friends couldn’t wake Lee from a nap. An ambulance took him to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital, where he was pronounced dead upon arrival at the young age of 32.
The strangest thing about Lee’s death was not only that he looked completely normal with no visible signs of injury, but that he was an extremely fit (and arguably healthy) man.
A New Theory Emerges
Naturally, conspiracy theories abounded over the early and untimely death of the incredibly fit athlete and actor. But now researchers claim in a new study that Bruce Lee’s consumption of too much water led to his death.
More specifically, Lee died 50 years ago due to his “kidney’s inability to excrete excess water.”
Variety picked up the report, conducted by Spanish kidney specialists and recently published in the Clinical Kidney Journal. For more, go here.
They noted, “We now propose, based on an analysis of publicly available information, that the cause of death was cerebral oedema due to hyponatraemia. In other words, we propose that the kidney’s inability to excrete excess water killed Bruce Lee. In this regard, Lee had multiple risk factors for hyponatraemia that may have included high chronic fluid intake, factors that acutely increase thirst (marijuana) and factors that decrease the ability of the kidneys to excrete water by either promoting secretion of antidiuretic hormone (ADH) or interfering with water excretion mechanisms in kidney tubules: prescription drugs (diuretics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, opioids, antiepileptic drugs), alcohol, chronic low solute intake, a past history of acute kidney injury and exercise.”
