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Official Website of Brent W. Laartz, MD

This website contains a collection of information, media, and books along with websites of the companies that were all founded by Dr. Brent W. Laartz.  Dr Laartz's passion in life is helping people understand how to prevent disease from impacting their life.  In addition to standard medicine, he believes in natural prevention such as diet and mindfulness that can have a profound effect upon healing and overall health.  The Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases physician is always ready to share an anecdote to help someone understand an illness that may be affecting them or a loved one.  He is an accomplished physician, author, and serial entrepreneur,  always in the lab or brewery working on something new.

Dr. Laartz is a Board Certified Infectious Diseases Specialist located near Tampa, Florida and in the US and British Virgin Islands.  He has decades of experience in infection prevention and tropical medicine.  He graduated with a BA and MS degree from Northwestern University and an MD degree from the University of Iowa.  He finished his training in Tampa, Florida, where he completed a residency in Internal Medicine and a fellowship in Infectious Diseases at the University of South Florida.  He served as the Chief Infectious Diseases Fellow at USF and founded the practice, West Coast Infectious Diseases, located on the West Coast of Florida.
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He and his partners have treated patients with almost every infectious disease imaginable.  Dr. Laartz is on staff at eight local hospitals and teaches frequently, holding a teaching appointment as an Affiliate Associate Professor of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine at the University of South Florida.  He is on the faculty for two residency programs and serves as infection control director and hospital epidemiologist for multiple hospitals.  Dr. Laartz has traveled the world offering medical assistance such as in India and the Caribbean.  He founded a charitable organization, Global Physician Mission Network, which serves to provide medical supplies and medical mission work in the farthest reaches of the globe.
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Furthermore, in order to further empower individuals who wish to avoid infections, he has founded a company whose vision is to provide quality safety and infection prevention tools directly to the public.  In traveling the world, he has garnered the ability to source the highest quality ingredients for his products.  The company, Protect U Guard, LLC, manufactures hand sanitizers and soaps, lotions and serums, essential oils, cosmetics, medical gloves, and other protective products.  Learning from some of his hosts abroad, a new concept was born of organic products formulated under the brand name Coquí Dulce.  Coquí Dulce is named after the revered tree frog native to the Virgin Islands and harnesses the energy, hydration, and healing properties of coconut oil, jojoba oil, and essential oils just like the Taino Indians practiced in the Virgin Islands.  The logo reinvigorates the ancient Taino stone carvings of the coquí that inspired the products.

In his spare time, Dr. Laartz enjoys mountain biking, sailing, and scuba diving.  He also brews his own beer and wine, and ferments salsa to add spice to his life. Every chance he gets he travels the globe with his children, teaching them the importance of maintaining a close relationship with nature.  He supports local charities and food markets and enjoys the arts such as opera and Broadway plays.  
You can find his books, which include a few medical-themed books, the most recent of which was a timely informative book for lay people on how to avoid infections, published just before the Covid-19 pandemic: "Protect Yourself: From Ebola to Zika, and from MRSA to Hospital Acquired Infections: How to Avoid Infections."  His first novel was published in 2022, a Russian spy thriller, titled "Sean Stamos: The Manchurian Market."  Be on the lookout for more books, the next in the Sean Stamos series to be published in 2023, is another political spy tome.  You can also find podcasts, articles, and videos that are sure to entertain and inform those who are interested in anything yoga, mindfulness, organic, sailing, brewing, or traveling.  He has embarked on a journey to become "Un-processed", shedding the processed products that are impacting every aspect of our lives.  You can learn how he will slowly "Go UnPro".  Check out the "More" tab above for "More" incredible information.
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