[imagesource: Enter The Dragon / YouTube / KAABA]

In July 1973, at the age of just 32, Bruce Lee passed away in Hong Kong.

At the time, the cause of death was said to be cerebral oedema, or brain swelling, according to the autopsy.

The theories to explain the Enter The Dragon star’s untimely death have been pretty hardcore.

Some believe it was a heatstroke while others reckon he was assassinated by Chinese gangsters. The generally accepted explanation is that it was down to a negative reaction to a painkiller that the martial arts legend had taken moments before his death.

But a new study has suggested that Lee had consumed so much water that his kidneys couldn’t keep up, making him suffer a very strange case of internal drowning.

In medical terms, the researchers say the oedema that killed him may have been brought on by hyponatraemia, per Sky News:

“In other words, we propose that the kidney’s inability to excrete excess water killed Bruce Lee,” the team of researchers wrote in the Clinical Kidney Journal.

…”We suggest that the fact that water intake was repeatedly noticed when it is such a commonplace activity that might have been forgotten given the exceptional circumstances means that it was indeed noticeably higher than the intake of other persons present on the day that Lee died,” they wrote.

They referred to Lee’s wife Linda talking about his fluid-based diet that included carrot and apple juice, as well as his biographer, Matthew Polly, repeatedly bringing up his water intake on the day of his death and just before he became noticeably ill.

His excessive use of cannabis, which causes increased thirst, is also thought to have played a role, alongside the use of prescription drugs and alcohol.