> Personal experience with this problem lead me to think about it, repeatedly.

It's a comically-understated way to say "I kept having acid reflux, just, so very many times, and it hurt like a motherfucker so I became preoccupied with fixing it".

Some of the most significant progress we made as a species was because some relatively smart and lazy person got really annoyed with some kind of problem.

OP deploying a bit of wit with the comma and the word "repeatedly" at the end. I don't what you'd call it exactly - gallows humor?

Presumably the understatement of it.