“How do you make a hormone? You pinch her.” That’s a joke my grandfather used to love to tell and it’s all I can think about today after seeing Steve Jobs’ public letter explaining exactly why he isn’t going to be leading the keynote at Macworld tomorrow.

“Fortunately, after further testing, my doctors think they have found the cause—a hormone imbalance that has been “robbing” me of the proteins my body needs to be healthy.

It’s kind of sad that Jobs had to write a letter on Apple’s website explaining that. But he and Apple finally realized that was necessary or else speculation would completely overshadow Phil Schiller’s keynote tomorrow and any product launches that may come with it.

Jobs is sick, yes, but millions of people around the world live life everyday with chronic ailments. Is this hormone imbalance related to the cancer he suffered from a few years back? Maybe. Is it related to diabetes? Who knows. The important thing is that Jobs isn’t dying and he stated for the record that he knows that if he were unable to run Apple, he would have to remove himself as CEO.

“I have given more than my all to Apple for the past 11 years now. I will be the first one to step up and tell our Board of Directors if I can no longer continue to fulfill my duties as Apple’s CEO. I hope the Apple community will support me in my recovery and know that I will always put what is best for Apple first.

So can we shut up about it already? Of course we won’t. But we should.

Cult of Mac has a pretty funny “breakdown” of the letter.

I’ll be at the Macworld keynote tomorrow for the first time. It’s sad that Jobs won’t be leading it, but I’ll live, and it’s good to hear that so will he.