Bruce Lee May Have Died From Drinking Too Much Water, New Study Says

The legendary martial artist and actor known for saying, “Be water, my friend,” may have consumed too much of it. Bruce Lee, star of The Way of the Dragon and Fist of Fury, died suddenly on July 20, 1973, at the age of 32. At the time, his death was ruled the result of cerebral edema, or swelling of the brain, and almost 50 years later, a new study proposed that Lee’s demise was caused by his “kidney’s inability to excrete excess water.”

The research study, conducted by a group of kidney specialists from Spain, was published in the December 2022 edition of the Clinical Kidney Journal. “Up to now, the cause of Bruce Lee’s death is unknown, although numerous hypotheses have been put forward, from assassination by triad gangsters to the more recent suggestion in 2018 that he died from heatstroke,” the paper reads, before stating that while the average human brain weighs around three pounds, Lee’s was reportedly closer to 3.5 pounds at the time of his death. 

According to the researchers, Lee had “multiple risk factors for hyponatraemia”—extremely low sodium concentration in a person’s blood. The condition may have been exacerbated by “chronic fluid intake,” use of marijuana (which increases thirst), alcohol consumption, prescription drug intake, and a documented history of organ injuries. 

“In conclusion, we hypothesize that Bruce Lee died from a specific form of kidney dysfunction: the inability to excrete enough water to maintain water homeostasis, which is mainly a tubular function,” the study states. “This may lead to hyponatraemia, cerebral oedema, and death within hours if excess water intake is not matched by water excretion in urine, which is in line with the timeline of Lee’s demise.” (Vanity Fair has reached out to a manager for Lee’s daughter, Shannon, for comment about the study and its findings.)

“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,” the researchers continue, “there is a need for a wider dissemination of the concept that excessive water intake can kill.”