Bruce Lee, Martial Arts, and TMS

After watching through this documentary about the life (and untimely death) of Bruce Lee on YouTube last night, I couldn't help but wonder out loud whether the cause of the great martial artist's "ruptured disk" and back pain was really TMS both directly and indirectly?



You'll notice of course that Bruce Lee was an absolute perfectionist, driven, aggressive and very emotional about the martial arts and his career and at the time of his so-called "back injury" he was worried about financial problems surrounding his family, getting old, and problems associated with his new status as a "movie star". You can't help but wonder whether his addiction to muscle relaxants coupled with that antibiotic is what really caused his stoke? I know Steve Ozanich thinks he sees the tell tale footprint of TMS is the deaths of a whole host of public figures.

Watch this fascinating documentary through and then see if you can find the answers.

 

Bruce, thank you for posting this great documentary. I've always been a fan of Bruce Lee and now feel like revisiting Enter The Dragon.

I agree with your comments about his life. Plus his increasing frustration and anger about not being able to express himself definitely played a part in his untimely death.

P.S, The Warriors Journey is also very good documentary. it shows how he disproved alot of Dr's who said may never walk again. He studied eastern philosophy, trained and apparently became better at martial arts. However, his back pain would still haunt him throughout his life.

 

But does anyone today know exactly what kind of muscle relaxants Bruce Lee was taking? How did they interact with that antibiotic? You have to wonder too whether Lee was suffering from neurological damage to his brain due to repeated hits? I guess no one will every know for sure today in the absence of MRI findings BITD. But that "ruptured disk" during weight lifting does have all the hallmarks of a TMS-induced catastrophic back attack followed by repeated relapses, very similar to the typical pattern Dr Sarno chronicles in Healing Back Pain.

 

This video, "Death By Misadventure", gives a much more detailed description of the events surrounding Bruce Lee's death:



Sounds as though his lower back pain may have been TMS-related, but his death had other factors involved. Very difficult to sort out, isn't it? Brain swelling could be due to an interaction of the muscle relaxants with some other drug. Or perhaps there was some traumatic head injury at play, especially given the recent prior incident where Lee lapsed into unconsciousness. Certainly a well-trained athlete between 26 and 34 years of age is at his physiologic peak.

According to the Wiki:

"Donald Teare, a forensic scientist recommended by Scotland Yard who had overseen over 1,000 autopsies, was assigned to the Lee case. His conclusion was "death by misadventure" caused by an acute cerebral edema due to a reaction to compounds present in the combination medication Equagesic."

So it's not impossible that Lee's sensitivity to Equagesic built up over time through its use to reduce his TMS-induced back pain. Sounds like a common thread running through the deaths of Michael Jackson and Prince: overuse of pain killers to blot out symptoms caused by an essentially psycho-genic condition (i.e. TMS) intensified by life stressor events.

 

Odd how in this whole "Death By Misadventure" documentary there is nary a mention of what kind of muscle relaxant Bruce Lee was taking for his "bad back". I would definitely be interested to know how it might have interacted with cannabis and the pain reliever he took the night of his unfortunate demise. If the muscle relaxant was involved, that would certainly relate to TMS treatments.

 

This explanation by Chuck Norris of the reason for Bruce Lee's death seems to confirm my hypothesis that it was the drugs Lee was taking for his back pain combined with the pain killer he was given the night of his demise that actually caused his brain to swell, resulting in a lethal aneurysm:



Interesting too, Norris's description of Lee being laid up in the hospital for 3 weeks following a catastrophic back attack he suffered during a weight lifting session. Sounds like a classic description of someone having a massive TMS attack while under tremendous self-imposed and external life pressures. Way back in 1972 (and even today) no one would have hazarded to guess that Bruce Lee's back pain was essentially psychological in origin although he certainly had many of the personality traits associated with TMS according to Dr. Sarno.