Men looking to spice up their love lives might best avoid hot curries.

Eating spicy food has a dampening effect on a man's ardour, according to new research.

Men who ate spicy food three or more times a week were nearly three times more likely to have erectile problems, according to new research.

Urologists from the University of South China said: 'Our study suggests that frequent spicy food consumption may increase the risk of erectile dysfunction, especially among non-smokers.

'The higher their spicy frequency eating, the higher the severity of erectile dysfunction. Diets of men with ED may need to be adjusted to consider the impact of spicy food.'

It's estimated that more than half of men between the ages of 40 and 70 have some degree of erectile dysfunction. Risk factors include advancing age, smoking, nerve damage, and conditions like heart disease and diabetes.

In the new study, which appears in Translational Andrology and Urology, researchers looked at the role of diet, as well as smoking habits in around 400 men with and without ED.

The men completed detailed questionnaires about their diets, and lifestyle, and had their ED status assessed. They also completed assessments looking at the effects of ED on relationships, health, and psychological issues.

Results show that eating spicy food more than three times a week was associated with a 2.58 times higher risk of erectile dysfunction. The results were confined to non-smokers. No increased risk was found in smokers who ate spicy food, possibly because smoking itself is a risk factor for ED which may obscure any dietary effects.

Just how spicy food could have such an effect is unclear, although the results show that the more spicy food consumed, the lower the levels of testosterone. Seven days a week eaters had levels around 12 per cent lower than non-eaters.

The results also show that the more spicy food the men ate the greater the risk of marital challenges.

The men had completed a questionnaire designed to tease out relationship problems. Regular spicy food eaters had significantly higher scores, indicating likely problems.

According to the researchers, this could be because the men who eat very hot peppers regularly may be prone to being irritable. 'They frequently tend to form an irritable character, which is prone to quarrels and disharmonious family relations,' they said.

Commenting on the research, Professor Raj Persad, consultant urologist at Bristol Urology, said, 'This is an interesting observational study. There are all sorts of possible explanations for these observations. One may be that those who eat more spicy food may have more of a tendency to diabetes or high BMI - both of which could cause be implicated in erectile dysfunction.

'The study may illustrate one important principle in the management of erectile dysfunction. Not only should doctors look to use medication to enhance erectile functioning, they should also look to exclude toxic influences such as cigarettes smoking, and perhaps now high levels of spicy toxins in the circulation.'