New study suggests water killed martial arts icon Bruce Lee

Bruce Lee’s It has long been suspected that the death was the result of cerebral edema, but it turns out there may have been an entirely different cause of the icon’s tragic death.

Almost fifty years after his death, Lee’s untimely demise has returned to the fore as a group of kidney specialists in Spain come up with a new theory about what may have killed the Hong Kong film star. They believe a very different illness caused his death, published in December 2022 in the Clinical Kidney Journal.

Instead of brain swelling, it was instead due to his kidney’s “inability to excrete excess water” due to hyponatremia. The report points to several of Lee’s lifestyle choices, such as smoking marijuana and prescription drugs, a history of organ injury, and drinking. The rise means he may have died from “excessive water intake”, also known as drowning.

“We believe Bruce Lee died from a specific form of kidney dysfunction: the inability to excrete enough water to maintain water homeostasis. This can lead to hyponatremia, cerebral edema and death within hours if excessive water intake is not accompanied by urinary water excretion. Given the prevalence of hyponatraemia, which occurs in up to 40% of hospitalized patients and can be fatal even in young healthy individuals due to excess water intake, further dissemination of the concept that excess water intake can be fatal is needed. ”

Other theories of Lee’s death include heatstroke, overexertion, cannabis use, murder, or the official legal explanation of “death by accident”. Essentially, this means that the death was the result of an accident in an event in which they knowingly participated, despite the risk.

There is another more occult theory about his death which believes that there was a curse on Lee and his family as his son Brandon Lee died during the making of The crow due to a mishap with the prop gun. The curse angle seems far-fetched but adds a little intrigue to a tragic death.

Brandon and Bruce Lee are buried side by side in a Seattle cemetery.