Let’s start with the good news. Alexa Ray Joel, the 23 year old daughter of Billy Joel, isn’t dead.

She wanted to be. She attempted suicide by overdosing on homeopathic medicine, without realising that the pills didn’t actually do anything.

Alexa Ray Joel, 23, was rushed to the hospital after taking several pills. Law enforcement sources said they were sleeping pills, but a source close to Joel said it was Traumeel, a medication used to treat minor aches and pains associated with repetitive sports injuries.

“Nothing would happen because there’s nothing in it,” said Dr. Lewis Nelson, a toxicologist at NYU Medical Center. “There’s no active ingredient. There’s nothing in these pills.”

Traumeel contains 12 biological ingredients, including several plants that are known to be toxic, and two mineral substances, according to Traumeel.com.

But homeopathic medicines are so diluted, they often end up not even containing the original ingredients.

“So basically you’d be taking more of nothing,” Nelson said, adding that he still recommends following the instructions on the bottle. Traumeel is also used on horses, dogs and cats. In 1997, it became the first homeopathic medicine to be listed in the Physicians’ Desk Reference.

Homeopathy has always been and will always be medical fraud. Luckily Alexa found out the hard way.