What blood test to take to check for Autoimmune disease?

[nic500]

My father passed away from Scleroderma and so I wanted to check to see if I have an autoimmune or mixed connective disease.  My uncle and 1st cousin have RA.  What blood test or test could I take to check to see if I have anything?

[TheLightSeeker]

If you do not have an "active" A/I condition,  the lack of antibodies in your blood circulation will return mostly negative results in any relevant  blood testing.
There are cases where also healthy individuals would
have positive ANAs  titres (antinuclear antibodies- used to test for A/I disorders) but usually in the lower ranges.
If you're really concerned three things you can do:
1. PREVENTION
Optimize your lifestyle through proper diet (avoid wheat and too many carbs), exercise daily, stay hydrated by drinking ample spring water, do "oil pulling" every morning, meditate, do yoga, improve your breathing ( go to the normalbreathing website for details), no tobacco, limited alcohol (preferably just the occasional glass of red wine) and so on.
2. Hippocrates — "Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food."
Choose (carefully) natural supplements and nutritionally dense foods of highest quality possible (organic/fresh/unprocessed).
3. Consider genetic testing.
There are many gene mutations, where Epigenetics
(modification of gene expression to affect how cells read the genes) can often make a profound difference in disease prevention and treatment.

I hope this helps,
Niko