Bruce Lee was a martial artist and actor from Hong Kong and America. He was the creator of Jeet Kune Do, a hybrid martial arts concept that combined elements from many combat styles. Lee is regarded for his matchless contribution to contemporary Mixed Martial Arts (MMA). By bridging the divide between East and West, Lee is regarded by critics, the media, and other martial artists as the most influential martial artist of all time and a 20th-century pop culture icon.
Lee was well-trained in Wing Chun, tai chi, boxing, and street fighting. The talented martial artist incorporated these disciplines along with influences from a variety of sources to create his own martial arts philosophy called Jeet Kune Do (The Way of the Intercepting Fist).
On July 20, 1973, Lee passed away at the age of 32. Even after his death, Bruce Lee's martial art techniques and acting left significant influences on contemporary popular culture, including movies, television shows, comic books, animation, and video games, as well as combat sports like judo, karate, mixed martial arts, and boxing. Lee was ranked among the top 100 historical figures by Time magazine.
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He is remembered for his parts in five full-length Hong Kong martial arts movies from the early 1970s: Golden Harvest's Way of the Dragon (1972), directed and written by Lee; Lo Wei's The Big Boss (1971) and Fist of Fury (1972); and Golden Harvest.
How Excess Water Consumption Cause Bruce Lee's Death
The martial arts actor Bruce Lee died of cerebral oedema, a swelling of the brain. Doctors at the time thought a painkiller was to blame for brain enlargement.
A recent study, released in the Clinical Kidney Journal, shows that Bruce Lee may have passed away from consuming too much water. According to a team of researchers, hyponatraemia caused oedema. In this study, the Researchers suspected that Bruce Lee passed away because his kidneys were unable to get rid of additional water.
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Scientists speculate that the actor's cause of death relates to hyponatraemia, a condition that happens when the body's sodium levels get diluted by drinking too much water. Such imbalance causes the enlargement of body cells, particularly brain cells.
Researchers also revealed that Lee had a number of risk factors for hyponatraemia, including:
- high fluid intake,
- thirst-enhancing actions, like marijuana use
- actions that reduce the kidneys' ability to excrete water, such as prescription drug use, alcohol consumption
- having previously suffered kidney damage
- low solute intake.
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The researchers wrote in their conclusion that they hypothesized that Bruce Lee died from a specific sort of kidney dysfunction that causes an inability to eliminate enough water for maintaining a tubular function called water homeostasis.
Researchers also added that when excessive water intake is not matched by the amount eliminated through urine, this may lead to hyponatraemia, and cerebral oedema (brain swelling). This condition may finally cause death within hours. This consequence matches the timing of Lee's demise.
Matthew Polly, the author of "Bruce Lee: A Life" book published in 2018, mentioned Bruce Lee's daily water intake. Lee's wife, Linda Lee Cadwell, mentioned his "carrot and apple juice" fluid-based diet.
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Bruce Lee made the famous adage 'Be water my friend,' but ironically excess water might have killed him.