Here is my experience with GERD and how I cured it. I somehow came down with a case of cellulitis in my right leg. This is a mid-layer skin infection of bacteria commonly found on our skin like strep bacteria. I did have a small cut on my lower leg and that is how it got in. The doctor prescribed antibiotics for 2 weeks and that cured it. But it left me with a case of heartburn because the antibiotics had killed much of the good bacteria in my gut. I had never had heartburn before. I searched Internet forums for people who had the same situation and found many. I know how bad Prilosec can be for you, especially long term so I did not want that stuff. So I restored my good bacteria by drinking half a cup a day of Kefir which is a fermented milk product that you can find in the yogurt section of most supermarkets. I like the taste of the plain, it is tangy. And you can add any flavoring to it you like such as a little Hershey's chocolate syrup. Within a week my heartburn was gone and after drinking 3 bottles of Kefir over several weeks I just stopped using it and heartburn did not return! Yogurt does not work because it only has 2 or 3 types of bacteria and most kefir has 10 or 12 types!
Details on kefir here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kefir