OK....so how do we protect them? Thats the billion dollar mousetrap.
If you mean “fixing” telomeres so they don’t run out, we’d probably want to find the cure for cancer first (cancer being cells that continue to replicate, and refuse to die when they are supposed to).
But then I suppose other diseases will just pop up. I believe that one of the primary “causes” for cancer today is quality medical care. 100 years ago, if you had a heart attack you died and didn’t live to eventually get cancer. Today, you get a second chance. If we cure cancer we’ll live on to get [something], IMO.