#393: "I Gave Myself Cancer" | Dave Catudal on Stress, Health & The Power of the Mind

This episode explores the connection between mind and body, the truth about stress and illness, and why Dave believes: "You either make yourself sick… or you make yourself healthy."

In this episode, Spencer sits down with Dave Catudal, a serial entrepreneur, health coach, and supplement formulator whose life has been shaped by loss, resilience, and a relentless pursuit of understanding the human body.

After watching his younger brother battle leukemia for six years and losing his father to cancer at just 46, Dave's life took a destructive turn. However, those same experiences became the foundation of his mission: to understand how the body heals and why so many people fall ill in the first place.

When Dave was diagnosed with cancer himself at 23, he wasn't shocked. He believed years of stress, trauma, and negative thinking had played a role in his illness.

From hitting rock bottom in Los Angeles, living in a garage and sleeping on a massage table, to building multiple businesses in the health and wellness space, Dave's journey is a powerful story of transformation.

In this conversation, Dave breaks down the fundamentals of health that many people overlook, including nervous system regulation, gut health, sleep, stress, and the hidden impact of modern lifestyles.

Timestamps:  

00:00 – How Dave believes he gave himself cancer

02:46 – His brother's leukemia, his father's death, and a family shaped by illness  

05:30 – Remembering his father Pierre: the man behind the legend  

08:05 – What actually causes cancer?  The mind-body connection explained  

09:26 – The most powerful memory of his father (a story you  won't  forget)  

12:08 – Regret, absence, and channeling grief into becoming your best self  

16:25 – What he would say to his father if he walked in today  

17:12 – The manifestation trap: why fixating on outcomes holds you back  

21:36 – Stress as the number one trigger of illness — the science explained <span class="EOP SCXW117796081 BCX0" data-ccp