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
You might have heard the term opiates. These are drugs like morphine, codeine, and thebaine that are found naturally in the opium poppy plant. Synthetic drugs like fentanyl and methadone that target the same receptors but are not found in the opium poppy are referred to as opioids. Opioids that are created by chemically modifying…
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Welcome to the fascinating world of cell wall synthesis inhibitors, where we will venture into the realm of one of the most clinically used antibiotics, the penicillins. They are broad-spectrum antibiotics, meaning they attack more than one species of bacteria. We’ll explore each drug, its mechanism of action, its side effects, and so on. Penicillin…
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In 1959, the first case of immunodeficiency virus to infect a human was documented in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo. Scientists would go on to theorize that the man contracted what became known as HIV-1 from a West African chimpanzee infected with simian immunodeficiency virus (SIV), probably from coming into contact with the chimp’s…
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On inspiration, a healthy set of lungs is pulled outward by the negative pressure created by the increase in chest volume. On expiration, the lungs recoil inward due to their elastic properties. Simply put, the lung is easily stretched outward but shrinks inward when it is no longer being pulled by external forces. Obstructive lung…
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Hypertension, or high blood pressure, affects about a third of adults, making it a very prevalent condition. Having high blood pressure is generally an asymptomatic silent condition, unless it’s very severe. Without symptoms, the condition is likely to go undetected and thus untreated. Coupling untreated hypertension with pregnancy can lead to disastrous outcomes for both…
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If you are just starting out with musculoskeletal anatomy, the terminology might make your head spin. What are all the directions, terms, and obscure muscles and structures? The goal of this discussion is to clue you into the anatomy vocabulary you need to survive the study of the many muscles and bones you will encounter…
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Sickle cell disease affects millions of people worldwide, causing debilitating pain, infection, organ failure, stroke, and premature death. Although the mortality rate has decreased over the past 20 years, a staggering 90% of children with sickle cell disease in resource-poor countries do not survive to adulthood. As improbable as it might seem, given the scope…
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Neurodegenerative diseases are a group of relatively common, progressive neurologic conditions that tend to affect people as they age. Basically, neurons in the brain die, causing functional losses. The part of the brain affected determines whether patients will experience dementia (deteriorated cognitive function), psychiatric disturbances, problems with movement, or a combination of these. These conditions…
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Every 28 days, most women of reproductive age release an egg (ovum) from their ovaries for potential fertilization by a sperm and resulting pregnancy. This is ovulation. The cycle of events that prepares the egg for this event is the ovulatory cycle. But the egg also needs a supportive place to land and grow after…
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Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE, or lupus) is a systemic autoimmune disease that occurs when the body attacks its own tissues and organs. The severity of symptoms of SLE range from mild to severe and even wax and wane within a single patient, making the course unpredictable. In this AudioBrick, we’ll discuss the basic features of…
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