Nearly 50 years after it happened, a group of researchers has a new
theory about what caused Bruce Lee's shocking death at age 32 that seems to
tie in with the cause officials cited. Does it hold up? Here's what we know.
The sudden death of action star Bruce Lee on July 20,
1973 in Hong Kong has stoked dozens of questions and theories in the decades
that have ensued. Speculation from fans, colleagues and biographers has resulted in
a cloudy public perception of what really killed the seemingly healthy legend.
Snopes.com cites a 2018 example of such speculation from a biography by author
Matthew Polly that suggests the actor's lack of sweat glands may have contributed
to his death by heat stroke. That's just one of many rumors about Lee's
death which have been bandied about in the nearly five decades since he lost his life,
which have included everything from foul play to steroid abuse,
according to Reelz Channel's podcast for their program Autopsy: The Last Hours of Bruce Lee.
Variety reports that the official cause of Lee's death was listed by Hong Kong
officials in Hong Kong as cerebral oedema, swelling of the brain. But a new group of
researchers has cast even more doubt on the official report. This group of
medical specialists has posited a fresh theory about what exactly caused Lee's sudden demise.
"One day, he was alive and well and he was being Bruce Lee and was on the verge of
achieving everything he'd ever dreamed of. And the next, he just was gone."
A report published by a group of Spanish kidney researchers in the December 2022
issue of the Clinical Kidney Journal suggests that Bruce Lee may have died from hyponatraemia,
meaning his body lacked critical levels of salt due to his heavy water intake.
The end result was that his kidneys were unable to process the massive
amount of fluids he consumed on a daily basis. With his organs unable to excrete
all the water in his body, hyponatraemia set in, followed by the cerebral odema.
The paper includes a laundry list of contributing factors related to this conclusion,
including prescription drug usage, the thirst caused by marijuana consumption,
and previous organ injuries. The paper concludes,
"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 researchers add that hyponatraemia is found in around 40% of hospitalized people
and might contribute to the deaths of even the young and the healthy. This also supports the
researchers' belief that more people should be aware of the dangers of excessive fluid intake.
Naturally, this conclusion is only a medical hypothesis,
and may or may not be contradicted with time and further study. According to Fox News,
Lee's family has not responded to requests for comment on these new findings.
Polly's 2018 biography, "Bruce Lee: A Life," also hypothesized that overconsumption of
water may have been a contributing factor in Lee's abrupt death. Polly told Fox News that
a previous medical problem may also be a factor in the actor's passing.
"The key to understanding Bruce Lee's death is that he collapsed 10 weeks before and almost
died of the very same thing. On May 10, 1973, he walked into a small dubbing room on one of
the hottest days of the month. They turned off the air conditioner to avoid ruining the soundtrack."
Lee overheated and collapsed outside of the recording room. He recovered,
but once he returned to the booth, he began to experience convulsions after collapsing
once again. Lee was taken to the hospital and, while doctors suspected brain swelling,
Lee's ailment was written off as being a minor case of heat stroke. But Polly
believes that Lee's untreated heat stroke was so severe it ultimately led to his death,
abetted, Polly claims, by the removal of the sweat glands in his underarms.
"The day he died was the hottest day of the month
in Hong Kong. And so I think it was heat stroke that killed him."
Lee's widow, Linda Lee Cadwell, maintained in a 1998 article
published in the Los Angeles Times that she believes a painkiller that included
an ingredient Bruce Lee was sensitive to was behind his passing. She wrote,
"Bruce died from cerebral edema caused by hypersensitivity to an ingredient in a
prescription medication called Equagesic. This determination was made after an exhaustive,
nine-day coroner's inquest during which the testimony of forensic pathologists
from all over the world, who had studied every tissue in Bruce's body, was heard."