No. The go-to gout drug for my doctor, like for most other doctors it seems, is allopurinol. I don't think they know how to tell whether you are retaining the UA or producing too much of it, so their default is allopurinol. Maybe there are many more people who produce too much UA, so doctors tend to favor allopurinol as a treatment. In my case, I ... more

It could be tophi, which are MSU crystals that have formed on the earlobe. Sometimes you can see these crystal deposits, sometimes they are under the skin. Generally tophi are painless, but not always. If you google "tophi gout" you'll get tons of information on it on the web. Here is a link to one: http://adam.about.com/reports/Gout.htm... more

Interesting about Bikram Yoga.

I've been doing regular yoga for a couple of years now, but got clipped by gout in December anyway. I increased the use of sweat rooms only a couple of months ago. So far so good, but it's only been a couple of months.