Chris Hemsworth has opened up about his discovery that he has a higher-than-average chance of developing Alzheimer’s disease, a type of dementia that progressively causes memory loss. Per Vanity Fair, the 39-year-old actor took genetic tests for Limitless, a docuseries that explores how to age slower. The results showed that he has two copies of the gene APOE4, which has been linked to an increased risk of developing the degenerative brain disorder. According to a 2021 study, just 2 to 3% of people have both copies of the gene. he plans was to on-camera tell me all the results and then talk about how you can improve this and that,” Hemsworth told Vanity Fair. “And Peter Attia, who is the longevity doctor in that episode, and overseeing a lot of the show, called [show creator] Darren [Aronofsky] and said, ‘I don’t want to tell him this on camera. We need to have an off-side conversation and see if he even wants this to be in the show.’” Hemsworth said he was told that the information meant he was “eight to 10 times” more likely to get the disease and in charge of a large portion of the programmer, contacted [show creator] Darren [Aronofsky] and said, ‘I don’t want to tell him this on camera.’ We need to have an off-the-record talk to determine whether he even wants this in the programme.” According to Hemsworth, the knowledge meant he was “eight to ten times” more likely to have the condition.
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The actor, whose grandpa has Alzheimer’s, said the event made him think about his own mortality and how he had been “slapping another movie on top of another movie.” “It triggered something in me that made me want to take some time off,” he mused. “And since we concluded the show, I’ve been finishing up the tasks I had previously agreed to accomplish.” Now, when I end my tour in the week, I’m going home and taking some time off to simply simplify. Be with the kids and my wife.” According to Deadline, the actor has already wrapped production on Extraction 2 and the Mad Max spin-off Furiosa.
Nonetheless, Hemsworth stressed that he does not want to “manipulate” or “overdramatize” what he learnt, stressing that he was given a “reason for worry” rather than a definitive diagnosis. In fact, he stated that he chose to include his health surprise in the episode so that others may learn — as he did — that there are preventative measures that can be done to treat Alzheimer’s. “It’s not like I was handed my resignation and told this is what it is—and it expires in a few months,” he explained. “Thankfully, it’s not really that bad.”
