Death by Water: What is hyponatremia that may have killed Bruce Lee?

“Be water, my friend.” The man who made this quote popular might have ironically died from drinking too much water, suggests a recent study.

Bruce Lee breathed his last on 20 July 1973 in Hong Kong at the age of 32. The cause of his death wasn’t determined immediately but now, 50 years later, researchers think that he probably died of hyponatremia – a condition that triggers low concentration of sodium in the blood due to excessive water intake.

The study, published in the Clinical Kidney Journal, said, “We propose that the kidney’s inability to excrete excess water killed Bruce Lee. Ironically, Lee made famous the quote ‘Be water, my friend’ — but excess water appears to have ultimately killed him.”

Let’s take a closer look.

Looking back at Bruce Lee’s death

The study has busted a string of conspiracies surrounding Bruce Lee’s death which ranged from rumours of him being assassinated by gangsters and getting poisoned by a jealous lover to dying of heatstroke.

For the purpose of their study, researchers dug up facts about Lee’s death to reach the conclusion that he might have died of hyponatremia. According to New York Times, his wife Linda was quoted in author Matthew Polly’ book Bruce Lee: A Life saying that the martial artist had drank some water that “probably made him a little tired and thirsty.” Soon after this he began to feel dizzy and complained of a headache.

It is also a well-documented fact that before this episode he was under the influence of cannabis, according to IFL Science. Following the headache, he took a painkiller called ‘Equagesic’ after which he was found unresponsive two hours later.

His wife had also mentioned once that his fluid-based diet included carrots and apple juice. He had reportedly given up solid-based food.

An autopsy conducted after his death revealed that his brain had swelled up to 1,575 grams which is way above the average of 1,400 grams. Therefore, it was concluded that the real cause of Lee’s death was not poison but a type of brain swelling called cerebral edema which might have been a reaction to the painkiller he took.