The Rx Bricks Podcast
Your High-Yield Med Content on the Go
Build your foundation of medical knowledge and close your learning gaps brick by brick. We’re turning our high-yield multimedia learning library, Rx Bricks, into an immersive audio experience—so you can turn downtime into high-yield learning time.
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Latest Episodes
Type 1 diabetes mellitus, previously known as juvenile diabetes, is one of the most common chronic diseases in childhood. The pathophysiology of type 1 diabetes begins with autoimmune destruction of the insulin-producing β cells in the islets of Langerhans, thus leading to insulin deficiency. A crucial role of insulin is to increase glucose uptake into…
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The ovaries are a pair of reproductive organs located deep in the pelvis of the female body; they contain the female gametes, the ova. As in many other organs, cancerous and benign tumors (neoplasms) can arise there, but most are malignant. Such tumors are distinct from ovarian cysts, although some ovarian neoplasms may have cystic…
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The central nervous system (CNS) comprising the brain and spinal cord is an incredibly complex part of the human body, so it is no surprise that sometimes things go awry during development. The various anatomic anomalies that result can be so severe as to be incompatible with life, such as when most or all of…
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A neoplasm is the abnormal growth of new cells, sometimes called a tumor. A variety of tumors can grow in our bones, and luckily more of them are benign (noncancerous) than malignant (cancerous). What causes these tumors? We usually don’t know, though we do know that most malignant bone tumors are secondary, with cancer spreading…
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Every movement we make is caused by the contraction of different muscles, which are themselves controlled by the neurons that innervate them. However, one long nerve fiber does not run from the brain all the way down the spinal cord to reach our muscles. Instead, our bodies use a two-neuron system. After listening to this…
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Bile is a greenish-yellow fluid produced by the liver. It is stored in the gallbladder and released into the small intestine, where it aids digestion by breaking down fats into fatty acids. Water is the main component of bile (about 95%). Bile also contains bile salts (the salt form of bile acids), cholesterol, phospholipids, bilirubin…
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Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a type of obstructive lung disease, an umbrella diagnosis that also includes asthma. The two types of COPD are emphysema and chronic bronchitis. The general underlying cause of obstructive lung disease is a narrowing of airways that results in decreased airflow and difficulty with respiration. Pharmacologic approaches to obstructive…
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For the most part, the brain relies on glucose as its main energy source. In fact, we say the brain preferentially uses glucose. In times of low glucose levels such as fasting or starvation, the brain can use ketones, lactate, and amino acids (worth noting: the brain does not use fatty acids to generate energy).…
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Before we jump into the details of essential thrombocythemia (ET), let’s back up for a little perspective. ET is one of a group of disorders called chronic myeloproliferative disorders. These disorders share a lot of similarities: they occur in adults, they have a relatively good prognosis, and they’re caused by mutations in proteins involved in…
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Antibiotics work by halting essential cellular processes to kill bacteria. Broken down into its roots, the word antibiotic is interpreted as “opposing life.” This trait can be beneficial against such living things as pathogenic bacteria, which endanger us. Like our own cells, bacteria synthesize protein using ribosomes, which are located in the cytoplasm. Prokaryotes have…
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