[jyl]

Get doctor to Rx some colchicine. At first sign of a flare, take it. Helps a lot, in my experience.

I stopped my 600 mg/day allopurinol, as a experiment. Everything was fine for a few months. Then I started to feel gouty again - stiffness, twinges, hints of flares. So I started on allopurinol again. It is possible that maintaining my weight at the current level could, by itself, keep my flares to a tolerable level. But I wanted zero flares, so back on the med.