Meet the Owner: Dr. John Balsamo of Life is Beautiful Chiropractic

If walking into the offices at Life is Beautiful Chiropractic makes you feel right at home, then your gut instinct is not off at all: Dr. John Balsamo is a native Babylonian.

The 1990 Babylon High School graduate grew up in the village, south of Montauk Highway/Main Street, after his family moved from Cambria Heights, Queens, where he was born.

“It was always my father’s dream to be here,” Balsamo said, who lived close to the Great South Bay. “The water was always my medication... there was just a lot of peace to it.”

Balsamo was introduced to medicine through his time as a lifeguard, where he said he had some intense experiences including performing CPR on a little boy. The child survived, impacting Balsamo for the rest of his life.

“I always think about it,” he said. “Its just always on my mind.”

While attending Stony Brook University and playing for one of their sports teams, Balsamo realized his calling was health care – wanting to protect life and prevent deaths, especially those caused by accident.

After spending a few months abroad, Balsamo returned and began to follow his dream with the simplest of actions: walking in the front door of a chiropractor’s office and asking for a job.

“I walked into Dr. Diane Zemba’s office in Babylon Village and I asked her if I could get a job there,” he recalled. With limited experience in construction and lifeguarding, Dr. Zemba hired him as her X-Ray developer to start him off.

While working at the office, Balsamo said he saw all types of people come in – kids, moms, dads, grandparents – and was amazed at the ability to help all kinds of people through chiropractic.

“What amazed me was you do not need anything wrong to see the chiropractor,” he said. “It was like training... like jujitsu. You could make it pro-active.”

After many years learning and earning his own degrees, Balsamo is now in his 12th year of practice, his ninth year in Babylon Village and his fifth year in his practice’s current location on the second floor of 73 Deer Park Avenue, overlooking the Business District.

His patients range from neighbors in the village to being the official team doctor for the minor league Long Island Ducks baseball team and NFL Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Namath. He even has performed adjustments on his own dogs, which he believes helped them live long lives.As for his own neighbors and patients, Dr. Balsamo offered some advice for the youngest athletes out there, especially as concussions have become a huge topic among major league sports. – wear a helmet.

“Always get your neck and vertebrate checked; all head injuries need to be checked,” he said. “You could be creating problems down the line if you don’t get it checked.” He also suggested helmets with the most shock absorption.

From his windows in his office, Balsamo can see almost everything that goes on in the busiest area of Babylon Village – and he does not plan on leaving anytime soon.

“You walk in anywhere, everyone here knows your name,” he said, beaming. “I grew up here and I always wanted to help the people of Babylon. I’m really proud of this place.”