An Educational Field Guide Vol. 1 · 2026 Atlanta, Georgia
Plan Well · Live Better · An Educational Field Guide
From the Bible

The Field Notes.

Plain-language essays from inside the Bible — the twelve things that try to kill us, and the moves that push them back. New pieces published as Vol. 1 is finalized.

No. 01
Article No. 01 · Published

"The shield isn't real. The numbers say otherwise."

Cardiovascular Health · Published May 13, 2026

The Athletic Shield Is a Myth — what Black pro athletes tell us about our health.

Eight in ten retired Black male professional athletes had hypertension. The fittest cohort we have. Their bodies told the truth about ours. Here's what it means — and what to do about it.

William A. Cooper, MD, MBA · 10 min read · Read →
Coming Next

More essays. More chapters. Published as the work is finalized.

Below: working titles for the next pieces in the series. New articles publish from this page as they're ready. Sign up at the bottom to be notified.

Ch. 01

Hypertension is loud. Most of us just stopped listening.

The four-week home BP log that earns a real conversation, the targets that actually matter, and why 150 over 95 is not a number — it's a countdown.

Ch. 02

Pre-diabetes is reversible. Type 2 is harder. The window is real.

The 12-week reversal protocol that works when you actually do it, the lab thresholds nobody explained to you, and the food rules that survive a real life.

Ch. 03

Why the cardiac OR is full of Black men in their fifties.

What the lab numbers, family history, and lifestyle data are trying to tell you twenty years before the event — and the screening every man should have by 45.

Ch. 04

The signs every household should know cold.

BE-FAST. AFib. The minutes that decide what comes after — and the screening questions most clinicians don't get to ask in a 12-minute visit.

Ch. 05

2.1× the mortality. Most of it preventable. Start the conversation at 40.

The PSA conversation, the family-history adjustment, and what to do when the urology referral lands in your lap. With or without a number.

Ch. 06

The colonoscopy conversation nobody is having out loud.

Why the screening window opens earlier than you've been told, what the prep is actually like, and why the highest colorectal mortality in the country lands on us.

Ch. 08

Sleep apnea is undiagnosed in most Black men who have it.

And it's quietly driving the heart, the pressure, the sugar, and the mood. The waist number that matters more than the scale, and the four-week trial that proves it.

Ch. 09

The mental-health gap nobody likes naming.

Why Black men get to therapy late, what the PHQ-9 actually measures, and the access map for therapy, telehealth, faith-based support, and 988.

Ch. 12

Why men with men live longer.

The accountability effect, the group chat that saves lives, and why the medicine without the man — without somebody sitting with you long enough to actually see you — is half a treatment.

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