If your attitude for Spring Break is summed up with the phrase, “Beer, the solution to – and cause of – all of life’s problems,” most likely you’ve been hungover at some point.

But what causes this agonizing feeling, and what can be done about it?

The main cause of a hangover is, of course, drinking too much. Dehydration and a component called congeners also factor in. This combination causes headaches and fatigue, said Sandra Belman, coordinator of the Health Enhancement Services.

The severity of the hangover is strictly the result of how much alcohol you consume.

-“The more dehydrated you get [from drinking], you lose more important nutrients and the worse the hangover,” Belman added.

Many believe mixing types of alcohol makes the hangovers worse. Whatever the case may be, the technical standpoint stays the same.

“Alcohol is alcohol,” Belman said. “Whether it’s fruity or not, it’s the amount of alcohol and congeners. It’s just that some [drinks] have more congeners than others.”

Food can work to your advantage, but it does not absorb the alcohol as is commonly thought.

If there is no food in your system, the rate of metabolism increases for the alcohol, but it will not help dilute it.

Belman said the reason Health Enhancement Services encourages people to eat food while drinking is because it fills you up.

Another popular belief is that drinking caffeinated beverages supposedly sways the effect of hangovers. However, it does nothing more than make you an alert drunk.

“One of the risks of being a wide-awake drunk is they think they can drive,” Belman said. “They may be awake, but unaware.”

The point of all this is nothing will speed up your ability to overcome a hangover. Your body and liver need time to process the alcohol. The only thing you can do is replenish the lost nutrition and the loss of fluids by eating something and drinking lots of other non-alcoholic fluids.

With that said, being hungover is not nearly as dangerous as blacking out. Blacking out is a term used to describe what happens when you either pass out or don’t remember half of the night and end up vomiting for hours on end.

“The amount of alcohol it takes to produce a blackout is really close to the amount of alcohol it takes to produce death,” Belman said. “If people have a friend that’s in that stage, they need to monitor them.”

One of the new trends to help remedy the hangover, and possible blackouts, is the Chaser pill.

Chaser is a dietary supplement that curbs the effects of hangovers. The pill is to be taken twice every two to three hours or every five drinks. While it may work for the hangover effect, it may cause other unwanted side effects.

Because Chaser is not approved by the Food and Drug Administration, Belman does not recommend it.

“We don’t know how these things really work,” she said. “I would refrain from use.”

So, if you’re planing on drinking heavily over break, make sure your schedule leaves adequate time for hangovers.