Bruce Lee, the biggest martial arts superstar ever in world cinema left millions of fans shell shocked by his sudden death at the age of 32 on 20 July 1973. His death has remained a mystery since then with several conspiracy theories doing the rounds including poisoning by enemies and wife plotted his death.

Now after close to 50 years since his death a group of researchers have come to the conclusion that Bruce Lee may have died of edema brought on by hyponatremia. The kidney disease occurs when exceess water is consumed by a person and very low levels of sodium in the blood. The research has been published in the Clinical Kidney Journal.

Bruce Lee of Chinese descent was born on November 27, 1940 in San Francisco, California, USA. He brought some changes in the art of Kung Fu at a young age and impressed everyone with his fiery fight scenes in TV shows and Hollywood films. His acting career started at an early age and by 18, he had acted in many films and television shows. He moved to Hong Kong where his first film as an adult 'The Bigg Boss'.was released in the year 1971 which became a huge global hit and grossed $12 million in Asia alone. All his subsequent films including 'Enter The Dragon' and 'First of Fury' were blockbuster hits everywhere including India and he became the most favorite action hero in the world.

Bruce Lee's last film was the Hollywood version of 'Enter the Dragon' but since he died halfway during filming it was released with other footage as 'The Game of Death'. The legendary actor who was also an innovative martial artist and philosopher fell asleep with a headache and never woke up. He later died at Queen Elizabeth Hospital at the age of 32 without regaining consciousness. His death remained a mystery.

According to the latest research 'Bruce Lee was a heavy exerciser and drank a large quantity of fruit juices and protein liquid frequently. Due to this, he was often thirsty and consumed excessive water. But his kidneys did not have the power to separate this excess water into urine. As the kidneys eventually lost more of this power, his brain became enlarged.

The researchers added "If the kidneys are unable to excrete urine, the result is swelling of the brain and weight gain. This is medically known as 'edema'. The average human brain weighs about 1,400 grams. But Bruce Lee's brain grew to 1,575 grams. Due to this, he died suddenly. This was revealed through his post-mortem."

The film industry and millions of Bruce Lee fans are surprised that the research results have after five decades. Incidentally Bruce Lee's son Brandon Lee also an actor died at the age of 28 while shooting his film 'The Crow'. He was shot by a supposed dummy gun that had bullets in it due to the negligence of the film crew.