Bruce Lee was a legendary icon in martial arts cinema. A founder of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts philosophy, Lee is credited to be one of the most influential martial artists of all time. He is also credited for changing Asian representation in Hollywood.
However, a young career came to a halt on July 20, 1973, when Lee passed away at the age of 32. A recent study has found a different cause for his death than the original one. Let’s find out the finding of this newly conducted study on the ‘Fist of Fury‘ actor.
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How Did Bruce Lee Die?
In May 1972, Lee was diagnosed with Cerebral Edema after he collapsed while dubbing for a film in the studio. On July 20, Lee took painkillers for his headache and went to sleep.
A doctor tried to wake him up and send him to the hospital where he was declared dead on arrival. There were no visible external injuries found on him. According to the autopsy report, his brain had swollen.
Some Equagesic was also found in his system. Producer Raymond Chow, who had met Lee the night of his death, talked about it in an interview in 2005.
He said that Lee died from an “allergic reaction to the tranquilizer meprobamate“, the main ingredient in Equagesic.
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What Is The New Study Saying?
After nearly 50 years of Lee’s death, a study conducted by a group of kidney specialists in Spain has tried to find his cause of death. According to Variety, it was published in the December 2022 edition of the Clinical Kidney Journal.
It states that Lee had “multiple risk factors for hyponatraemia,” because of his “chronic fluid intake.” “We hypothesize that Bruce Lee died from a specific form of kidney dysfunction: the inability to excrete enough water to maintain water homeostasis“, it said.
“This may lead to hyponatraemia, cerebral oedema and death within hours if excess water intake is not matched by water excretion in urine,” the paper concluded.
“Given that hyponatraemia is frequent, as is found in up to 40% of hospitalized persons and may cause death due to excessive water ingestion even in young healthy persons, there is a need for a wider dissemination of the concept that excessive water intake can kill.”
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