Heartburn causing a chest infection?

[Catk34]

16 weeks pregnant and never experienced heartburn before, but realised a few days ago that I’m pretty sure I’ve started getting it now.
I have also had a bad cough/chest infection (mucus in lungs) and sore throat for the past 5 days. It keeps getting better then suddenly getting worse again. It just occurred to me last night after waking up from a nap that I think the heartburn could be the cause of it as it seems to get worse after I’ve been lying down.
i haven’t taken anything for the heartburn yet as I don’t have medication in the house and didn’t realise until now that maybe the heartburn is the cause of the other issues.
Can anyone tell me if heartburn can cause this or if it sounds familiar? I’ve never experienced heartburn before and didn’t even realise I had it to begin with.

Sorry to hear you're feeling unwell. No, it's not possible that one is directly causing the other. They are two separate systems in your body. What is likely is that you have been unlucky to develop two separate conditions at once. It's very common to experience heartburn in pregnancy. It's likely that the combination of the chest infection and overall pregnancy fatigue mean that you are resting and lying down more often, which will exacerbate the heartburn.

Your GP likely won't be able to do much for the chest infection as it is probably viral and will need plenty of fluids and rest. However they will be able to give you omeprazole or similar to treat the heartburn, which will make it more comfortable to get the rest that you need.

Heartburn won't cause a chest infection. Acid reflux/heartburn can however give you a bad cough, make you feel chesty like there's mucous to clear and give a sore throat too!

I suffer with this pre and during pregnancy. Probably best to contact your GP and ask for omeprazole (I also take gaviscon at night too).

If you have a chest infection in addition, keep hydrated as PP mentioned.

Acid reflux can give you a chest infection as you can aspirate on the 'back wash' of reflux up the esophagus due to pressure of pregnancy on esophageal sphincter allowing acid to be released from stomach. Reflux can then enter via the larynx into the chest and result in a chest infection/aspirate pneumonitis. However, you tend to only see this if you have a lot of reflux or have aspirated on vomit.

Reflux can cause chest infections. It's not super common so probably is more of a coincidence and you've caught a bug. Refluxed stomach contents can be inhaled and enter the lungs and that causes a chest infection. Given it's respiratory illness season it's more likely to be unrelated to the reflux.

@ThanksItHasPockets heartburn definitely can cause sore throats and chest infections/inflammation (it's actually pretty common).

OP, you'd be better getting advice from a real life HCP - if it is all related to acid they can probably prescribe meds that'll improve both problems.