Australian actor Chris Hemsworth recently announced that he plans to take time off acting after discovering that he has a genetic risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Headlines screamed of the “shocking revelation” and an “ominous health warning” from the genetic test results, which found that Hemsworth’s DNA contains two copies of the APOE4 gene. What is the APOE4 gene, how is it linked to Alzheimer’s disease, and what does it really mean if you have this gene? And should everyone rush to get themselves tested too? We explore these questions with neurogeneticist Dr Azlina Ahmad Annuar, and genetic counsellor Yoon Sook Yee.


Image Credit: Wikimedia / Creative Commons & Shutterstock

Australian actor Chris Hemsworth recently announced that he plans to take time off acting after discovering that he has a genetic risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease. Headlines screamed of the “shocking revelation” and an “ominous health warning” from the genetic test results, which found that Hemsworth’s DNA contains two copies of the APOE4 gene. What is the APOE4 gene, how is it linked to Alzheimer’s disease, and what does it really mean if you have this gene? And should everyone rush to get themselves tested too? We explore these questions with neurogeneticist Dr Azlina Ahmad Annuar, and genetic counsellor Yoon Sook Yee. Image Credit: Wikimedia / <a target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">Creative Commons</a> &amp; Shutterstock

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