There are no “adultery packages” on which to print the kinds of warnings you find on cigarette packets – but there’s reported evidence this week that playing around can seriously affect your health.

According to an Italian neurologist, having an affair can not only cost you your marriage – it can be fatal. The strain of living a double life leads to stress and tension for the cheating spouse, which can cause a potentially fatal aneurysm, or ballooning in a blood vessel in the brain.

These findings were presented at an international conference in Turin by Professor Lorenzo Pinessi, president of the Italian Migraine Association, whose team studied hundreds of patients in Italy who reported migraines. Some of the worst affected were having affairs.

“What we found is that it was mostly men who suffered worst from this phenomenon, which is all to do with stress and hypertension,” Prof Pinessi was quoted as saying. “It would appear that men have a more severe feeling of guilt when cheating, which leads to increased stress and tension.”

This won’t, of course, stop many partners from embarking on extra-marital dalliances, but when added to the already lengthy catalogue of disadvantages of adultery might make some people think twice before giving into sexual temptation.

Adultery, as I’ve described previously in this blog, is the biggest single cause of divorce, because it is so difficult to forgive and forget. Adultery, like no other marital misdemeanour, is viewed by the “wronged” spouse as the ultimate betrayal.

Although many partners who stray struggle with feelings of guilt, even that feeling adds to the potent mixture of emotions that make adulterous behaviour often seem more important than it really is. Yet too few people sit back and think whether a few snatched hours of illicit excitement are worth the risk of losing their marriage, their family life, their home and a substantial slice of their financial assets.

Of course, some people look elsewhere for love because their marriages are fundamentally unhappy, but many more – men especially – fall into the adultery trap because casual sex is offered on a plate. They’re bored or flattered, or both and they don’t stop to consider the possible ramifications.

Suffering a potentially fatal aneurysm may be unlikely, but what is far more likely is that a cheating spouse will be rumbled (however carefully they try to cover their steps) and their lives as they know it can collapse like a pack of cards.

In today’s economic climate, it is more judicious than ever to stay married: if you split up, you’ll be hard pressed to sell the marital home, your investments will offer less return than this time last year and two households will be more costly to run.

So if you are having an affair, or thinking of embarking on one, my advice is that you think very carefully about the long-term consequences. Having “a bit on the side” might seem like harmless fun, but a few weeks or months down the road that fun may turn into your worst nightmare.