Bruce Lee passed away almost 50 years ago. On July 20, 1973, the famous actor and martial arts expert passed away unexpectedly in Hong Kong. Despite much speculation, officials determined that cerebral oedema, or brain swelling, was the cause. But according to a recent study, Lee’s death was brought on by his “kidney’s inability to excrete excess water.”
The study was carried out by a team of renal doctors in Spain, and it was released in the Clinical Kidney Journal‘s December 2022 issue.
Bruce Lee was 32 when he passed away suddenly
Bruce Lee’s “chronic fluid intake,” use of marijuana (which increases thirst), and known factors that may have interfered with his kidney’s function, such as prescription drugs, and a history of injuries to the organ, are all mentioned by the authors as “multiple risk factors for hyponatraemia,” or an abnormally low sodium concentration in one’s blood.
Bruce Lee may have died from hyponatraemia
According to scientists, the actor may have died from hyponatraemia, which develops when the body’s sodium levels get diluted as a result of consuming too much water. The cells in the body, particularly those in the brain, swell as a result of an imbalance.
Lee was 32 when he passed away suddenly. Despite having taken pain and anxiety medication (meprobamate and aspirin).
“We hypothesize that Bruce Lee died from a specific form of kidney dysfunction: the inability to excrete enough water to maintain water homeostasis…. 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 concludes. “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.”
Since Lee passed away quite suddenly, there has been a lot of fervent discussion about what caused it. Over the years, some admirers have even suggested that the actor was murdered. Although the present investigation did not find that the day’s temperatures were unusually high, the 2018 book “Bruce Lee: A Life” theorized that he passed away from heat exhaustion. The research suggested that even if he hadn’t drunk a lot of water, his kidneys might not have been able to process even typical quantities of liquids. His diet apparently consisted primarily of liquids and was nearly liquid.
