HOLLYWOOD star Chris Hemsworth has announced that he’ll be ‘stepping back’ from his career after a recent health update.

The talented actor, 39, revealed he’s at a high risk of developing Alzheimer’s after discovering that he carries two copies of the gene APOE4.

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Chris has starred in many well known films including ThorCredit: Alamy
It’s a gene that has previously been linked to the debilitating illness, with just one in four people carrying it.

The Thor actor found out about the link when filming for docuseries ‘Limitless’, which will be aired on Disney+.

As a result, it has been revealed that Chris doesn’t plan on ‘taking on as many roles’ after his current four projects.

A source told Page Six: “He doesn’t plan to take on many roles because of [learning about his high risk for] Alzheimer’s.”

Chris told Vanity Fair in November that he wouldn’t be retiring by any means, but wanted to take a “more curated approach to things.”

He said: “Most of us, we like to avoid speaking about death in the hope that we’ll somehow avoid it.

“We all have this belief that we’ll figure it out. Then to all of a sudden be told some big indicators are actually pointing to this as the route which is going to happen, the reality of it sinks in. Your own mortality.

“For me, the positive of it was like: ‘Right, if I didn’t know this information, I wouldn’t have made the changes I made.’

“I just wasn’t aware of any of it, so now I feel thankful that I have in my arsenal the sort of tools to best prepare myself and prevent things happening in that way.”

The former Home and Away star also shared how he’s been dealing with the news, with the help of his wife Elsa Pataky as well as their daughter India, 10, and twin sons Sasha and Tristan, eight.

Chris continued: “Very quickly it became a self deprecating sort of joke, if you will. It’s just the way I am, my family, there’s a sense of humor

“The idea that I won’t be able to remember the life I’ve experienced, or my wife, my kids, is probably my biggest fear.”

Chris was having bloodwork done for the programme he was filming when he found out he was between eight and 10 times likelier to develop Alzheimer’s than the general population.

The cause of Alzheimer’s is not fully understood, the NHS says.

A study published in the National Institute of Aging previously suggested that the APOE protein helps carry cholesterol and other types of fat in the bloodstream.

This could impair the cells’ essential processes, experts said.

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Chris Hemsworth and Elsa Pataky share three children togetherCredit: Instagram