I'm no biologist, but from what I understand the body actually does maintain telomeres over time, it just doesn't keep up with the loss from cell division over

I'm no biologist, but from what I understand the body actually does maintain telomeres over time, it just doesn't keep up with the loss from cell division over a lifetime. Purely speculating, death to "old age" is rare in nature so the process merely has to be "good enough" for our genes to compete rather than perfect enough for immortality.