It's been about a decade and he had these issues since childhood. Poor thing was on prescription meds at 10 years old. I had gone to school for holistic medicine and learned that when the flap doesn't close all the way, the stomach acid gets through and causes these issues. And by far in most cases the cause of the flap not closing is a buildup of bacteria on the flap which blocks a solid close, which can be eliminated through cleaning up the diet, taking acv, and not eating within a few hours of bedtime, and not laying down after eating. Now as far as cleaning up the diet, this tends to be customized for each person but a good place to start is whole30 because it automatically eliminates the worst offenders. Not only did this all cure him from this, but he also had frightening allergies (his throat would start to close on him after mowing grass), and all that disappeared too. Also lost a ton of weight and has abs for the first time in his life. He's in the best health of his entire life in his mid 40's.